Nifty falls to two-week low on profit-selling

Nifty slid for the third consecutive day to more than two-week low in a highly volatile trade today as selling in pharma, energy, banking, auto, infra and metal stocks made the benchmark lose 29.25 points.
Trading was mostly narrow-band and lackluster amid immense intra-day volatility as macro worries continue to nag the market sentiment as surging crude prices due to Iraq conflict could pressurise the country's economy with massive import bill, affecting the fiscal deficit.
Barring some buying in key IT and realty stocks, across the board selling was witnessed from shares of mid-cap and small-cap companies.
Selling by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) also dampened the sentiment with investors selling shares worth a net Rs 420.51 crore yesterday, as per the provisional data from the stock exchanges.

The 50-share Nifty opened higher at 7,543.30 and hovered between a high of 7,560.55 and a low of 7,497.45 before concluding at 7,511.45, down 29.25 points, or 0.39 per cent, over its last close.
Major losers were M&M (down 2.73 per cent), Tata Power (2.69 per cent), Hindalco (2.35 per cent), BPCL (2.11 per cent) and NMDC (1.98 per cent).

Other losers included BPCL, Sun Pharma, PNB, Bank of Baroda and Grasim.
However, notable gainers were McDowel (up 3.04 per cent), Cairn (1.39 per cent) and Axis Bank (1.33 per cent).
Meanwhile, other Asian markets ended mixed amid continued concerns over Iraq violence.

Turnover in the cash segment declined to Rs 16,064.94 crore from Rs 17,073.46 crore yesterday.
A total of 10,348.55 lakh shares changed hands in 74,48,935 trades, while the market capitalisation stood at Rs 86,12,333 crore.