Profit booking takes its toll

STOCK REPORT

After trading 1 per cent higher for most part of the session, the key indices ended flat as retail investors booked profits.

Dealers said that the erratic trend over the past few days, with an over 100-point intra-day movement, was making investors, particularly the retail ones, nervous and that they were unwilling to carry positions over the weekend.

The Bombay Stock Exchange's 30-share Sensex ended at 8961.61, up 16.83 points, or 0.19 per cent, over Thursday. The index set a new lifetime high of 9057.97 intra-day. The previous high was 9033.99 recorded on November 30. Of the total traded shares on the BSE, 1,383 were down and 1,096 up.

The National Stock Exchange's 50-share Nifty closed at 2697.95, down 1 point. It made a new high of 2730.70, surpassing 2727.05, touched on November 30.

Alok Churiwala of Churiwala Securities said, "A bullish undertone backed by good liquidity, sustained foreign fund inflows, and strong overseas trend supported the initial rise in the indices."

But retail investors have become very jittery due to the extreme volatility in the market over the past few sessions. They may have preferred to square off their positions towards the end of the session, which brought market off its highs," said Alok Churiwala of Churiwala Securities.

Videsh Sanchar Nigam, up over 3 per cent at Rs 382.70, led the Nifty gainers, followed by Jet Airways, up nearly 3 per cent at Rs 1,245.75.

Dealers attributed part of Jet's gains to the cut in price of aviation turbine fuel and reports that the company is planning to acquire 30 aircraft for $2.4 billion over three years.

Reliance Industries, Reliance Energy and Indian Petrochemicals Corporation ended in the red after an exuberant start. Profit-booking, the Bombay High Court deferring the hearing in the group's de-merger case, and across-the-board product price cuts for December, affected sentiment for the shares.

Automobile and oil retailing firms were sluggish throughout the session.

Bajaj Auto, Mahindra and Mahindra, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, and Bharat Petroleum Corporation shed 1-2 per cent.

The CNX Midcap Index ended marginally higher at 3899.65. The index clocked a new high of 3924.00 compared with 3922.80 touched on October 5.

Aditya Birla Nuvo rose for the fourth consecutive session to end 5 per cent higher at Rs 709.75.

Alfa Laval India fell 5 per cent to Rs 850.30 after gaining for six straight sessions.