All-round selling hurts

All-round selling dragged the markets down on Friday. Investors stayed away from buying a day after the market had rebounded almost two percent. Higher international oil prices and weak US markets dampened spirits further.

Consumer durables, auto, oil, and PSU scrips were among the biggest losers while select FMCG counters recorded some gains. The breadth of the market was negative with losers outpacing gainers 2:1.

In the Sensex basket, 21 out of the 30-scrips closed lower. Opening firm, the BSE Sensex hit a high of 6249.39 and a low of 6142.34 in intra-day trades.

It finally closed at 6173.82, down 47.24 points (0.76 per cent) from Thursday's close. Volumes were lower in the cash segment "" the BSE reported a turnover of Rs 2206.98 crore and the NSE Rs 5172.19 crore.

A dealer from a local brokerage house said: "Despite some positive results, the sentiment remains weak with investors looking to exit at all higher levels. The next big trigger for the markets will be the annual budget that is expected next month, he added.

Brokers said they expect the market to be rangebound in the near term. Old worries of a slowdown in foreign fund inflows and a slowdown in demand from China continue to play on sentiment, market players said.

Market players said lack of buying is seen as investors are mostly discounting the good results and selling on bad news. A fund manager added that US crude oil rose above the $48 per barrel on colder weather forecasts, weakening domestic refiners.

Talks that the regulator has sent show cause notices to four brokerage firms with regard to the May 17 crash added to the drama in the market yesterday.

The talk in the wind is that that the four firms involved in the 17 May crash were two Delhi-based brokers (with the same promoter), one US-based firm and one hedge fund.

Selling pressure from some hedge funds has also been seen, brokers said.

Foreign funds were net sellers of Indian shares worth Rs 0.90 crore on Thursday while domestic mutual funds were net buyers to the tune of Rs 5.90 crore, data released by the Securities and Exchange Board of India show. Players had expected active participation from foreign funds on Friday after the finance minister said there were no plans to tax or cap purchases by foreign institutional investors.

Hero Honda was the biggest loser in the Sensex basket, falling 5.95 per cent to close at Rs 524.45, followed by Tata Power, down 4.20 per cent to Rs 343.25, Maruti Udyog was down 4.13 per cent to Rs 419.40, Bajaj Auto fell 3.65 per cent to Rs 1071.65 and Reliance Energy fell 3.08 per cent to Rs 489.10.

HDFC Bank was the biggest gainer in the Sensex basket, rising 3.08 per cent to close at Rs 515.05, followed by HDFC, up 1.38 per cent to Rs 732.95, Bharti Tele-Ventures gained 1.28 per cent to Rs 210.30, ITC gained 1.04 per cent to Rs 1254.70 and Infosys Technologies gained 0.54 per cent to Rs 1976.