Profit-booking in blue chips brakes the rally

STOCKS REPORT

Profit-taking in blue chips dragged the benchmark Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex down on Thursday, but only after the Sensex crossed the 6600-level once again.

The fall comes after the Sensex recorded five straight new highs. Brokers said that profit-taking at higher levels led to the fall as most players were cautious at these levels. Yesterday being the last day of the current month's futures contract also led to the fall.

The BSE Sensex hit a high of 6608.30 and a low of 6507.30 in intra-day trades before closing at 6522.54 down 45.40 points (0.69 per cent) from Wednesday's close.

Volumes were higher than on Wednesday in the cash segment of the bourses; the BSE reported a turnover of Rs 2,086.99 crore and the NSE reported a turnover of Rs 5,469.11 crore.

Foreign fund participation was also relatively low. "Fund managers tend to take a break at this time of the year and this has its effect all over the world," a broker said.

Technology, FMCG and oil scrips were among the biggest losers, while metal and consumer durables companies recorded gains on Thursday. The breadth of the market was negative with losers outpacing gainers 11:6. In the Sensex basket, 22 out of the 30-scrips closed lower.

Foreign funds were net buyers of Indian shares to the tune of Rs 174 crore on Wednesday and have bought shares net worth Rs 5,673 crore in December so far, according to the data released by the Securities and Exchange Board of India.

On the last day of the December futures series the turnover in the derivatives segment shot up to Rs 17,341 crore with a total of 4.7 lakh contracts being traded. The open interest outstanding was around 56 crore shares.

The Nifty futures saw 72 per cent of its positions being rolled over, much lower than in previous months, while stock futures saw 82 per cent of their open positions being rolled over to the January series.

The highest rollover to the extent of 90 per cent were witnessed in Cipla, Hindalco, Nalco and NTPC. The Nifty December futures closed at 2059.10, almost at par with the spot Nifty's closing at 2059.80.

Satyam Computer was the biggest loser in the Sensex basket, falling 2.47 per cent to close at Rs 404.20, followed by Tata Motors, down 2.19 per cent to Rs 497 and ICICI Bank fell 1.91 per cent to Rs 363.75.

Reliance Industries fell 1.50 per cent to Rs 523.30 and Reliance Energy was down 1.05 per cent to Rs 524.45.

Hindalco was the biggest gainer in the Sensex basket, rising 2.27 per cent to Rs 1446, followed by the State Bank of India scrip, gaining 1.80 per cent to Rs 633.35 and HDFC Bank was up 1.72 per cent to Rs 521.30.