| With the two in every three stocks traded on the BSE lost ground since March 8, the market cap of 2,598 traded stocks declined from its all-time high level of Rs 17,87,242 crore on March 8 to Rs 17,25,816 crore on March 21. |
| Of 2,598 stocks, 1,761 stocks (68 per cent) turned losers, wiping out investors' wealth worth Rs 76,740 crore. The 837 stocks gained ground during the period, adding investors' wealth worth Rs 15,314 crore. |
| The sector that lost ground in the last nine trading days were power, banks, diversified, refineries, telecommunication, fast moving consumer goods, information technology and pharmaceuticals. |
| Losers in percentage terms were led by CESC (down 16.8 per cent), TN Newsprint (14.4 per cent), Merck (13.8 per cent), Punjab National Bank (13.7 per cent), Videocon International (13.7 per cent) and Alfa Laval (13.4 per cent) among group A stocks. |
| In value terms, NTPC tops the losers list with a market cap fall of Rs 4,741 crore followed by Reliance Industries (market cap down Rs 4,316 crore), Hindustan Lever (market cap down Rs 3,513 crore), Bharti Tele-Ventures (market cap down Rs 3,318 crore), Indian Oil Corporation (market cap Rs 2,955 crore), Wipro (market cap down Rs 2,264 crore) and ITC (market cap down Rs 2,114 crore). |
| Among the gainers, the share price of Allahabad Bank increased by 19 per cent, Essar Steel gained 22.7 per cent, MMTC gained 20 per cent, Gammong India up 32.4 per cent and McDowell up 26.5 per cent. |
| Crisil MarketWire adds: Meanwhile, key indices are expected to be range-ound with a negative bias Tuesday. |
| Dealers said that year-end considerations like balancing of accounts and portfolio churning are expected to keep indices down. |
| Also, retail investors could continue to book profits at higher levels. |
| The Bombay Stock Exchange's 30-share Sensex ended 43.65 points or 0.65 per cent lower at 6,656.69 Monday. The National Stock Exchange's 50-share Nifty closed 12.55 points or 0.6 per cent lower at 2096.60. |
| According to a technical analyst, the Nifty could find support at 2074 and 2045 and face resistance at 2130 and 2140. For the Sensex, support is at 6635 and 6618 and resistance at 6700. |
| Dealers said foreign funds were mostly staying away from the market and this was causing nervousness in the market. Foreign funds were net buyers of Indian shares worth $31.1 million on Friday. Dealers said this figure was too low to give strength to the market. Thursday, these funds had bought $14.7 million worth of Indian shares. |
| Dealers said technology shares, some of which had gained on Monday, are looking good on the charts and could rise further. |
| The outlook for the automobile sector was not very encouraging as the sector has a lot of issues to grapple with, they said. |
| "High steel and crude oil prices along with the introduction of value added tax regime from Apr. 1 are just some of the issues that the sector has to deal with," said an analyst with a domestic brokerage. |
| Analysts said investors were keenly awaiting the U.S. Federal Reserve policy meet Tuesday. |
| Though in all likelihood, interest rates will be raised by 25 basis points, the market will look for cues in the statement of Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. |
| With crude oil price hovering around $57 per barrel in the international market, dealers said this has now become a major concern, not only about the profitability of oil companies but also of industry in general. |
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