It's back to volatile ways

STOCKS REPORT

Volatility was back in equity markets today. The Bombay Stock Exchange's (BSE's) 30-share index, Sensex, surged 89 points in early trades to touch the day's high of 5,012.52, before falling 223 points to the low of 4,789.63.

The benchmark index closed the day at 4,817.99, down 2.15 per cent, or 105.70 points, from the Wednesday's close. After gaining ground for two days, shares took a beating on profit-taking at higher levels by both financial institutions and mutual funds. The National Stock Exchange's (NSE's) S&P CNX Nifty fell 40.10 points to close at 1,495.10.

Market players, however, attributed the today's fall to the market not being enthused by the meetings of fianance minister (FM), P Chidambaram, with various industry bosses.

The markets opened in the positive territory but steadily gave ground after the FM spoke to the press briefly in the afternoon. Market participants, who expected some positive news from the FM, were disappointed.

A dealer with a local brokerage said, "Investors, including some FIIs, had taken huge positions. But there was disappointment as nothing new came out of the meetings to enthuse the markets."

The breadth of the market was negative as declines outnumbered advances by 1164-to-467 on the BSE. Twenty-seven of the 30 Sensex stocks ended lower. Brokers said players booked profits in blue-chip counters after the markets witnessed gains in the last two days.

The BSE IT sector index was the biggest loser today, down 2.97 per cent, followed by the BSE PSU index, down 2.57 per cent and the Healthcare index fell 2.43 per cent.

The BSE capital goods sector index was up 0.22 per cent and the Bankex gained 0.19 per cent, bucking the negative trend. MTNL was the biggest loser in the Sensex basket today, falling 5.80 per cent to Rs 116.15, followed by Grasim, down 5.60 per cent to Rs 1024.25 and Cipla fell 5.53 per cent to Rs 225.55.

Reliance Energy fell 5.36 per cent to Rs 508.90 and Gujarat Ambuja Cements was down 5.24 per cent to Rs 283.20.

Heavyweights Reliance industries was down 2.58 per cent to Rs 428.30, ITC was down 2.38 per cent to Rs 879.25, HLL fell 0.98 per cent to Rs 135.85 and the State Bank of India scrip was down 0.66 per cent to Rs 469.45.

ICICI Bank was the biggest gainer in the Sensex basket today, up 1.74 per cent to Rs 266.15, followed by HDFC, up 0.60 per cent to Rs 566.25 and BHEL gained 0.59 per cent to Rs 446.70.

Tech bellwether Infosys Technologies fell 2.03 per cent to Rs 5231.55, Satyam Computers was down 2.65 per cent to Rs 309.90 and Wipro fell 4.48 per cent to Rs 1460.20.

HPCL fell 4.74 per cent to Rs 314.60 and ONGC was down 3.25 per cent to Rs 635.30. Tata Motors was down 4.39 per cent to Rs 375.30 and Maruti Udyog fell 3.57 per cent to Rs 377.75.

Volumes in the market were higher than those on Wednesday, with the BSE registering a turnover of Rs 1,943.51 crore and the NSE Rs 4596.95 crore in the cash segment. FIIs were net buyers on Wednesday, pouring in Rs 52.8 crore into equities, while mutual funds stood net sellers with pulling out Rs 41.80 crore.