Profit booking continues

STOCKS REPORT

Lack of activity and profit booking across the board dragged the market down today. The benchmark Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex closed lower with all the major BSE indices closing in the negative territory.

Profit booking in blue chips and mid-caps continued to be seen at higher levels. Investors sold heavily in the consumer durables, oil, metal and auto counters.

In the BSE Sensex basket, 18 out of the 30 scrips closed lower. The breadth of the market was negative, with losers outpacing gainers 17:6 on the BSE.

Brokers said that strong institutional buying had helped the market record some gains yesterday but a lack of activity hit the market today.

A dealer from Motilal Oswal Securities said, "Some institutional activity is being seen but most players are waiting for the Union Budget before taking big calls."

The BSE Sensex hit a high of 6694.79 and a low of 6640.42 in the intra-day trades before closing at 6670.06, down 9.27 points (0.14 per cent) from Monday's close.

Volumes were lower than on Monday in the cash segment of the bourses. The BSE reported a turnover of Rs 2,272.98 crore and the NSE reported a turnover of Rs 4,530.12 crore.

HPCL was the biggest loser in the Sensex basket, down 1.96 per cent to close at Rs 362.55. Reliance Energy fell 1.71 per cent to Rs 564.65, Hero Honda was down 1.53 per cent to Rs 555.10, HDFC Bank was down 1.27 per cent to Rs 561.70 and Satyam Computer was down 1.26 per cent to Rs 416.15.

Tata Power was the biggest gainer in the Sensex basket, leaping 3.01 per cent up to close at Rs 421, followed by Bharti Tele-Ventures, up 2.35 per cent to Rs 219.85, Dr Reddy's Labs, up 1.38 per cent to Rs 752.70, Grasim, up 1.36 per cent to Rs 1,378.85, and Infosys Technologies gained 0.70 per cent to Rs 2184.05.

Strong buying support from foreign funds had helped the market record a big rally but the undertone of the market appeared cautious, brokers said.

A lack of active domestic participation has raised concerns among market players, they added. Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Indian shares worth Rs 834 crore on Monday as per data from the Sebi website.