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It was a third consecutive day of equity market closing in red this week after a stellar rally seen earlier. Key Benchmark indices ended marginally lower on Thursday after hitting 3-year intra-day highs after index heavyweights pared most of the early gains and selling pressure in IT majors set in.
The 30-share Sensex ended at 20,725 down by 42 points after topping the 21,000 mark while the 50-share Nifty ended down 14 points at 6,164 after hitting a high of 6,252 during the day.
In broader markets, the BSE mid-cap index finished 0.16% higher with Jubilant Life Sciences emerging as the top gainer. The scrip closed at Rs 106.50 after hitting its 20% upper circuit after the company said last week that it received ANDA approvals for Bupropion Hydrochloride from US FDA and expects to launch the same in December quarter. The stock has run up 40% in three days.
Investors booked profits IT stocks the index ended 1.77% lower from its previous close. Selling pressure in heavyweights such as TCS, L&T, RIL, Infosys and Coal India also pulled the market down.
The rupee continued to trade strong in afternoon trades due to dollar sale by banks. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) received $ 10 billion under its forex swap window, which gave a sentiment boost to curreny market. At 4:02 pm the rupee was trading at Rs 61.23 up 23p compared with previous close of Rs 61.59 per dollar.
Asia closed mixed with shares in China's Shanghai Composite closing down by 0.86% on Thursday as a further spike in China's money-market rates tempered the effect of a survey showing a pick-up in manufacturing. China's benchmark seven-day repo rates opened up nearly a full percentage point at 5% after the central bank let cash drain from the money market for a second week.
The Chinese central bank declined to inject cash for a third day as regulators showed signs of concern that loose liquidity might again be fuelling risky credit growth.
Japanese Nikkei 225 index edged up by 0.4% in relatively light trade. It added 60.36 points to 14,486.41, while the Topix index edged up 0.62% to 1,203.35.
Back home, Prime Minister's key economic advisory council chairman C Rangarajan today expressed his confidence that the Indian economy will grow at around 5.5% in the current fiscal, brushing aside IMF and World Bank's "unduly" pessimistic projections.
BSE capital goods index, which ended up 1.1%, was the top sectoral gainer while IT fells 1.8% and is among the worst performing sectoral index today.
M&M was the top Sensex gainer, it ended at Rs 888, down 2.4 percent; L&T, Gail India, HDFC Bank and Tata Motors were the other major Sensex gainers.
Among top sensex losers were Wipro down 4.4% , Coal India down 3.6%, and TCS which fell 2.5 percent, Jindal Steel and BHEL were other major losers.
Overall market breath remained negative as 1287 stocks declined as compared with an advance seen in 1183 shares at the BSE.
Other gainers
United Breweries shares rise 8.81% to Rs 961.20 rupees; the stock had touched its 52-week high of 1023.30 rupees in Dec. 2012.
Kotak Mahindra Bank says Sept-qtr net profit 5.83 bln rupees; stock ends marginally down at Rs 706.85.
NHPC tanked 5.3% to Rs 18.55 after the board of the state-owned company approved buyback of its shares at a price of Rs 19.25 per share through tender offer.
Jet Airways (India) stock hit turbulence ending 2.22% lower at Rs 338.70 after reporting a highest ever quarterly loss of Rs 891 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2013 (Q2) due to higher fuel prices, a sluggish market, increased expenses, and a weak rupee. The company had loss of Rs 100 crore in the same period last year.
