Sensex snaps 6-day rally

STOCK REPORT

The Sensex and Nifty ended down on Friday after six sessions of gains because of the end-of-week caution, dealers said.

"There was no specific reason for the correction, markets are overheated and some minor correction was bound to come in after the way we (markets) have run up in the past week," an institutional dealer said.

He insisted the market undertone was still bullish, and the Sensex and Nifty would touch new highs next week.

The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex ended at 13,429.48, down 76.41 points or 0.6%. The benchmark index opened at a new lifetime high of 13678.04 and touched a low of 13383.43 intraday.

The National Stock Exchange Nifty ended at 3891.85, down 24.05 points or 0.6%, after touching a low of 3835.70 and a high of 3891.85 during the day.

After seven sessions of continuous gains, bank shares finally succumbed to profit booking on Friday. However, a positive outlook on the sector cushioned the fall and the CNX Bank Index ended down under 1 per cent.

On the Nifty, Punjab National Bank ended down 3.6 per cent at Rs 534.10, and HDFC Bank shed 1.6 per cent at Rs 1,126.55.

State Bank of India ended marginally up after giving up most of its early gains while Oriental Bank of Commerce ended nearly flat.

Dealers said inflation figures that were announced mid-session had little impact on the Sensex and Nifty.

India's headline inflation rose to 5.30 per cent in the week to November 4 from 5.09 per cent a week ago. The figure stood at 4.04 per cent a year earlier.

The rise was attributed to increase in prices of primary articles and manufactured products.

"A slight rise in inflation is not going to ruin the party as it is still under the (Reserve Bank of India's) target (of 5-5.5 per cent)," Abhijit Chakraborty, vice-president, institutional sales, BRICS Securities.

A dealer said, "Even though turnover has been increasing over the past week, market breadth had been narrowing. So this correction was not a surprise."