The markets opened on a positive note at 6,689 and climbed steadily by 30 points thereafter as sentiments were boosted after the Indian ADRs witnessed a strong rally on the US indices.The Sensex shot up 100 points to its day high of 6,772 during the mid-session as heavyweights clocked huge gains especially from the IT, FMCG and PSU counters. However heavy selling pressure among banking, auto and enginerring stocks pulled the Sensex down below the 6,700 mark. The bears took over and Sensex after drifting in a range of 6,685 - 6,690 for sometime late afternoon was dragged down by another 20 points. Firm oil prices and an expected weak opening of the US market triggered profit taking. Strong volotility was observed during the fag end of the trading session as profit booking became the order of the day after a continous seven day gain.FMCG and IT heavyweights, ITC, HLL and Infosys managed to sustain gains but the indices succumbed to the frenzied selling pressure in the auto, banking and pharma counters.The steep decline was also the result of a bear grip in the small and midcap stocks as they were subject to profit taking after the mid-session rally. The Sensex has currently settled 36 points higher (from its previous close of 6,670) at 6,708, coming down sharply of the day's high.The CNX Nifty gained 1.70 points to 2,076.40. ITC stock flourished after the company announced that the board would consider a bonus issue and stock split. But the gain was shortlived as the stock tumbled since its Q4 results did not meet expectations. ITC has posted a profit after taxation of Rs 771.75 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2005 where as the same was at Rs 387.06 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2004. ITC settled with a gain of 2.4% to Rs 1,569.70 after touching a high of 5%. FMCG major Hindustan Lever marched to different beat and leapt up 5% to Rs 138.50 and was the biggest gainer of the day. The counter clocked a heavy volume of 18.7 lakh shares. However, profit booking even took a toll on blue chips like RIL and ONGC. Reliance Industries plunged to Rs 530 and ONGC edged lower to Rs 900. Although the goverment approved a divestment of 10% stake in Bhel, the news failed to cheer investors. The stock surged for short period but soon declined 3% to Rs 868.L&T dwindled down 1.5% to Rs 1,085 shaving off most of its earlier gains. The company has posted a 17% rise in net profit at Rs 333.68 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2005 as compared to Rs 286.16 crore for the same quarter last year. The market breadth, however, ended weak. Of 2,538 scrips traded on the BSE, 1,663 stocks declined, 825 advanced and 50 remained unchanged.Satyam and Infosys gained 2% each at Rs 457 and Rs 2,231. Both the stocks have managed to sustain their rally throughout the day even as the market breadth remained negative.Hindalco and Tisco were the gainers among the metal stocks and elevated 2% each to Rs 1,175 and Rs 362. Among the banking pivotals, SBI and ICICI Bank remained in the negative territory throughout the session with no sharp movements at Rs 668 and Rs 398. However, IDBI bucked the trend and surged 8% to Rs 88. Bank of India, Canara Bank and OBC traded above their yesterday's close.Pharma majors Ranbaxy and Wockhardt too posted gains of 3% each at Rs 1,102 and Rs 370 respectively, even as the stocks weakened towards the close.Zee Tele and Bharti Tele didn't quite catch up with the bull rally during the mid-session and fell by a per cent each to end the day at Rs 138 and Rs 225.Balaji Tele, Guj Narmada, Century Enka, HCL ang GTL Ltd were among the other losers which fell below 3%
