Stock markets Thursday remained almost flat and ended with little change as cautious traders and speculators unwound long positions.
On the other hand, mutual funds continued buy bluechip stocks to prop up net asset values for the quarter ending June 2001.
Traders said domestic funds, led by state-owned UTI, bought frontline stocks. Today, buying interest was seen in select heavyweight pivotals. Selling pressure was seen in PSU stocks.
The benchmark 30-stock Sensex, after moving in an intra-day range of merely 35 points,) settled with a loss of 6.78 points at 3,404.86 points. On the NSE, the S&P CNX Nifty ended down 2.10 points at 1,094.10 points. Losers outnumbered gainers.
On the BSE, 681 stocks decline and 518 stocks gained. While on the NSE, 399 stocks declined and 302 stocks gained.
PSU stocks reeled under selling pressure. Hindustan Petroleum (down 4.35 per cent to Rs 156), MTNL (down 3.73 per cent to Rs 125.15) and Bhel (down 2.48 per cent to Rs 164.95) lost ground on speculative unwinding.
ICICI (down 5.29 per cent to Rs 73.40) lost ground on reports that Japanese Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) warned that it will invoke the guarantee provided by domestic FIs for a foreign loan of $2.9 billion granted to Dabhol Power.
ICICI is one of the institutions which have guaranteed a total of $ 524.24 million in foreign loans to the power project. SBI (up 1.52 per cent to Rs 219.75) attracted buying interest.
Meanwhile, Ranbaxy Labs (up 2.07 per cent to Rs 499) gained on renewed buying after it denied being in a bid to buy out Specialty Laboratories Inc in the JV, Specialty Ranbaxy.
Selective buying was seen in pharma stocks such as Lupin, Suven Pharma, Alembic, Abbott Labs, Novartis, Duphar Pharma, J B Chemicals, Pfizer, German Remedies and Parke-Davis. But Dr Reddy's Labs (down 0.78 per cent to Rs 1,580) lost ground on profit-booking.
ITC (down 1.61 per cent to Rs 772.25) and HLL (down 0.40 per cent to Rs 197) lost ground. Tata Steel, Reliance Petro, Bajaj, Castrol and BSES also settled in the red.
Among tech stocks, Infosys (up 1.81 per cent to Rs 3,602) gained on buying interest. While NIIT (down 0.59 per cent to Rs 372) and Satyam Computer (down 0.38 per cent to Rs 169.50) dipped on profit-booking.
Momentum stocks such as Global Tele (up 3.41 per cent to Rs 151.55) recorded further gains. Himachal Futuristic (down 2.12 per cent to Rs 83.25) settled in the red, coming off from its intra-day high of Rs 89.80. On other hand, buying continued in Zee Telefilms, (up 1.95 per cent at Rs 114.75).
Other media stocks such as Adlabs Films (Rs 61.95) hit the 8 per cent upper limit of the circuit-breaker. Pentamedia (up 6.61 per cent to Rs 77.45) bounced back from an intra-day low of Rs 67.40. But scrips of Cinevista, Jain Studios, Sri Adhikari Brothers, Creative Eye, Saregama India, Mukta Arts, Balaji Telefilms, Mid-Day Multimedia and Padmalaya Telefilms dipped.
Most brokers expect the market to remain dull ahead of changes in trading rules from Monday. Traders will have to liquidate their outstanding positions in two phases, by July 2 and September 3.
