Sensex drops below 7200

STOCK REPORT

The sharp fall in index heavyweights such as Infosys Technologies and ICICI Bank and the prevailing high volatility dragged the Sensex down below 7200.

But global bourses went up, riding on declining global crude oil prices in contrast to the domestic scrips that weakened on Thursday. The Sensex ended 60.21 points lower at 7187.70. The Nifty lost 35.70 points to close at 2185.10. The market breadth turned slightly positive, with 1275 stocks advancing against 1219 stocks declining.

"The market is heavy on selling pressure. In case of Nifty, 2170 would be the minor support point on which a fall might occur," said a broker with a domestic firm.

Of the 30 shares in the Sensex basket, only 11 ended positive. Turnover on the BSE was lower compared with yesterday's Rs 3161 crore. NSE turnover stood at Rs 6367 crore.

Most indices ended in the red on Thursday "" the BSE Consumer Durables Index was the highest loser. The index lost 3.77 per cent. BSE IT Index was down 2.70 per cent while the BSE Teck Index down 2.62 per cent. The BSE FMCG Index up 0.83 per cent and the BSE Oil and Gas Index up 0.76 per cent were among the few gainers.

The ACC scrip gained 0.44 per cent to close at Rs 424.50 owing to strong Q1 results. HDFC Bank saw profit booking in morning trades after the company announced lower-than-expected quarterly numbers.

The major gainers in frontline stocks was the ITC, up 2.12 per cent to Rs 1766.40. Other gainers were Reliance Industries (1.81 per cent), BHEL (1.24 per cent), NTPC (1.17 per cent), Ranbaxy Labs (0.67 per cent), Cipla (0.63 per cent) and Grasim India (up 0.22 per cent).

Software giants continued wilting, after the Infy results announcement on Tuesday. Infy was down 3.13 per cent, closing at Rs 2133.75, while TCS was down 3.60 per cent at Rs 1224.55. Wipro was down 1.87 per cent to close at Rs 696. The ICICI Bank was down 3.94 per cent to Rs 445.95, Hero Honda down 2.38 per cent to Rs 620.85 and Gujarat Ambuja Cements down 2.33 per cent to Rs 60.75.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of shares worth Rs 253.10 crore on Wednesday, while domestic mutual funds were net sellers of Rs 138.80 crore.

Among top gainers in the information technology sector, CyberTech Systems scrip (9.98 per cent), Aztec Software (7.81 per cent), CMC (7.12 per cent), India Infoline (6.22 per cent) and Zenith Computer (6.15 per cent).

Among top losers in the sector were Hexaware Technology, (13.20 per cent), Geodesic Info (4.86 per cent), TCS (3.60 per cent), Infosys Technology (3.13 per cent) and SRG Infotech (3.12 per cent).

The banking index lost 1.97 per cent to end up at 4306.26 with major scrips such as ICICI Bank (3.94 per cent) and Karnataka Bank (3.39 per cent) sinking down. The State Bank of Travancore (2.70 per cent), Oriental Bank (2.49 per cent) and Punjab National Bank (2.07 per cent) were among the other losers.

The scrips which appreciated were Dhanlaxmi Bank (19.89 per cent), United Western Bank (3.13 per cent), Syndicate Bank (3.03 per cent), Canara Bank (2.40 per cent) and Bank of Baroda (1.24 per cent).

Among the FMCG counters, the top losers were Dabur (4.75 per cent), Marico (3.11 per cent), Godrej India (1.34 per cent), Nirma (1.11 per cent) and HLL (0.86 per cent).

The top gainers were Rayban Sun Opticals (2.53 per cent), JL Morison (1.42 per cent), Vashisti Detergents (1.02 per cent), Godrej Consumer Goods (0.11 per cent) and Procter & Gamble (0.06 per cent).