Profit booking dents rally

STOCKS REPORT

After an unprecedented run in the last two weeks, market finally stopped for breath today. Profit booking dragged the market down in intra-day trades but some buying at lower levels helped the market recover somewhat.

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex closed in negative territory after hitting new lifetime highs for four straight sessions. Brokers said that some profit taking was expected after most key stock indices touched their lifetime highs in the last few sessions.

Consumer durables, auto, metal, banking and FMCG counters were among the biggest losers today. In the BSE Sensex basket, 21 out of the 30 scrips closed lower. The breadth of the market was also negative, with losers outpacing gainers 3:1.

The BSE Sensex hit a high of 6954.86 and a low of 6843.44 in intra-day trades before closing at 6892.82, down 22.27 points (0.32 per cent) from Tuesday's close.

Volumes were lower than on Tuesday in the cash segment of the bourses; the BSE reported a turnover of Rs 2,943.67 crore and the NSE reported a turnover of Rs 5,699.65 crore.

Nervousness at higher levels and other factors such as high international oil prices led to some profit taking, brokers said. An overnight weakness in the US markets also weighed on sentiment, they added.

Strong foreign institutional buying has fuelled the recent rally but domestic participation has been limited though some small investors are buying low-value scrips in the hope of riding the rally, brokers added. Even domestic mutual funds have not been big buyers so far, despite raising big money via IPOs, market entities said.

Cipla was the biggest gainer in the Sensex basket, rising 8.40 per cent to close at Rs 295.50, followed by Ranbaxy Labs, up 3.22 per cent to Rs 1,092, Grasim gained 1.57 per cent to Rs 1,384.50, ONGC was up 1.07 per cent to Rs 912.15 and HDFC was up 0.96 per cent to Rs 801.25.

Tata Motors was the biggest loser in the Sensex basket, falling 2.87 per cent to Rs 468, ICICI Bank was down 2.06 per cent to Rs 390.50, HPCL fell 2.05 per cent to Rs 335.10, Zee Telefilms was down 1.53 per cent to Rs 141.55 and Reliance Energy fell 1.49 per cent to Rs 579.90.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Indian shares worth Rs 498.30 crore on Tuesday according to data from the Securities and Exchange Board of India website.

They have been net buyers to the tune of Rs 3,461.50 crore in March so far, bringing their total net purchases to Rs 12,294.50 crore in 2005 so far. Strong buying support from foreign funds has helped the market record gains, brokers said.