Sensex ends with small loss of 22.90 pts

Mumbai, Feb 12: The Sensex today closed with a small loss of 22.90 points on the Bombay Stock Exchange, ending at 16,680.01 as select heavyweight scrips slipped again on lack of speculative support from Foreign Institutional Investors (FII's) and domestic investors.

The poor debut of India's biggest IPO Reliance Power also had an impact on the market, brokers said. The markets bounced back in early trade today on the back of some support from gobal cues but could not maintain gains for long and traded with volatility for most part of the day before ending with modest loss. Broader markets completely underperformed the frontline counters, providing extremely negative breadth.

Most of the indices were weak barring metal, energy and banking during the day. Realty, power, consumer durables, FMCG and auto sectors were the clear laggards. On the volume front also, it was not encouraging and today's turnover was low at Rs 5488 crore compared to Rs 6548 crore the previous day.

Banking, oil&gas and metal stocks were in demand. IT stocks declined along with the broader market as reflected in the weak market breadth. 22 out of 30 stocks from the Sensex pack were in the red.

European market, which opened after Indian market, nudged higher in early trade. Asian markets, however, were mostly in green.

India's industrial output rose 7.6 per cent in December 2007 from a year earlier, accelerating from the previous month's downwardly revised 5.1 per cent, helped by stronger manufacturing, government data released today indicated.

The 30 scrips of BSE Sensex ended down 22.90 points or 0.14 per cent at 16608.01, before it resumed high at 16,812.68 points. later it recorded a high at 16,966.72 and a low at 16,565.48 points.

The Nifty index of NSE was down 18.75 points or 0.39 per cent at 4838.25 at the end of the session.

On BSE, about 556 shares advanced, 2411 shares declined, and 48 shares were unchanged. BSE midcap ended down 2.24 per cent at 7058.38 and BSE smallcap closed down 2.82 per cent at 9173.68.

Major BSE indices suffered a steep setback as BSE small cap declined by 266.42 points and closed at 9173.68, followed by CD index by 163.30 at 4343.28, MID CAP by 161.45 at 7058.38 points, Realty index by 125.49 at 9042.84 points, BANKEX index by 122.48 points at 9867.36, PSU index by 115.62 at 7659.36 points, auto index by 72.11 at 4508.59, IT index by 58.18 at 3789.98, power index by 47.71 at 3366.95 and TECK index by 42.86 at 3238.91 points.

Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group firm Reliance Power fell 4.67 per cent to Rs 355.10 on volume of 2.20 crore shares on BSE. The stock had debuted at Rs 547.80, a premium of Rs 21.73 per cent over the IPO price of Rs 450. Among the Sensex losers, TCS slipped 4.51 per cent to Rs 862.50, Reliance Energy lost 3.31 per cent to Rs 1530, Mahindra&Mahindra shed 3.06 per cent to Rs 578.80, Tata Steel declined 2.64 per cent to Rs 706.85 and ACC fell 2.53 per cent to Rs 719.

Leading heavyweight scrips like MRF, Hind Motors and M&M were the top losers. BSE capital good index closed down 1.07 per cent at 14873.21.

Gammon India, Reliance Infra and BEML were the top losers.

BSE FMCG index was down 0.92 per cent at 2034.46. United Breweries, Bata India and United Spirits were also among the top losers.

BSE IT index closed down 1.51 per cent at 3789.98. Patni omputers, TCS and Financial Tech also ended in the red.

BSE oil&gas index was up 0.41 per cent at 9926.32. Essar Oil, RNRL and IOC were top losers in this sector.

BSE power index ended down 1.40 per cent at 3366.95. GVK Power, Tata Power and ABb were top losers in the power sector.

BSE realty index was down by 1.37 per cent at 9042.84. Phoenix Mills, Mahindra Life and Puravankara Projects also declined.

India's largest private sector firm by market capitalization and oil refiner Reliance Industries rose 1.76 per cent to Rs 2315, while ICICI Bank also edged up 3.22 per cent to Rs 1069.

Larsen&Toubro fell 1.71 per cent to Rs 3254.80.

However, a few heavyweight stocks were in limelight including State Bank of India, which gained by 1.60 per cent to Rs 2078 followed by Bharti Airtel by 1.07 per cent to Rs 858, Ranbaxy Laboratories by 0.92 per cent to Rs 369, and DLF by 0.17 per cent to Rs 796.90.

As per provisional data, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 1268.67 crore on February 11. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net sellers of shares worth Rs 22.27 crore.

FIIs were net sellers to the tune of Rs 287.93 crore in the futures&options segment on Monday. They were net sellers of index futures to the tune of Rs 862.29 crore and bought index options worth Rs 144.49 crore. They were net buyers of stock futures of Rs 487.87 crore and sold stock options worth Rs 58 crore, brokers added.

UNI