8000 gets a near-miss

STOCK REPORT

Key indices rose for the fifth straight session on Monday, ending at new closing highs after touching record levels in intra-day trades. A late bout of profit sales wiped a significant portion of the gains, with oil and technology shares being the key laggards. The Sensex missed topping the 8000-mark by just 17 points.

The Bombay Stock Exchange's Sensex ended at 7925.24, up 25.47 points, after touching a record high of 7983.33 intra-day. The National Stock Exchange's Nifty rose 7.15 points to close at 2422.95. It touched a record high of 2439.55 intra-day.

Equities started off on a buoyant note, encouraged by the easing of crude oil prices and renewed buying from foreign institutional investors over the past few sessions.

Dealers said the overall mood was positive, but there is usually some nervousness just before a psychological index level.

Among the best performers in the Nifty, Gujarat Ambuja Cements and ABB were up 4 per cent each, while Hindalco, ITC and Videsh Sanchar Nigam were up 3 per cent.

Bharat Petroleum Corporation was the biggest loser in the Nifty, ending down 4 per cent as the government continued to drag its feet over the issue of raising retail fuel prices.

Rating agency Crisil on Monday said that petrol prices would have to be raised by at least Rs 6 a litre, and diesel by at least Rs 4 a litre for oil retailing companies to break even this financial year.

Hindustan Petroleum shares ended marginally lower.

Among other laggards, Zee Telefilms was down 3 per cent, while Steel Authority of India, Tata Power, Infosys Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services, Dr Reddy's Laboratories and Colgate-Palmolive (India) were down 1-2 per cent.

On the BSE, gainers won by a thin margin of 5:4. In the A, B1 and B2 groups, 55-58 per cent of the stocks ended higher.

Midcap stocks performed in line with their frontline counterparts, with the CNX Midcap Index closing marginally higher.

India was the best performer among key Asian markets on Monday. Japanese shares were slightly up, Hong Kong shares were flat, while South Korean, Taiwanese and Singapore shares ended marginally lower.

Hitesh Shah, technical analyst at Prabhudas Lilladher, said profit taking, mostly in key technology shares, saw the indices come off highs.

Angel Broking's chief investment officer Rajen Shah sees the Sensex slipping to 7400 in six weeks. He believes it's the time to book profits and wait for correction to set in.

On the other hand, Lilladher's Sheth believes indices still have scope for upward momentum and may touch 8100 over the next few sessions.

According to dealers, retail investors, who had not participated in the rally to the 7900 level, had re-entered the market after analysts indicated the Sensex might touch 8400.

They said it is often observed that market movements become slightly erratic with the entry of retail investors, as most tend to buy and sell irrespective of fundamental and technical factors.