Sensex slips by 42 pts, closes at 13,340.21 pts.

Mumbai, Dec 20: The Sensex continued to drift downwards, closing at 13,340.21 today on the Bombay Stock Exchange with a modest loss of 41.80 points on profit booking by local operators in view of subdued global advices.

The market settled in the red after witnessing high volatility throughout the day's trading session, moving between positive and negative zone.

The Sensex settled 41.80 points lower at 13,340.21. It swung a sharp 335 points for the day from an intra-day low of 13,232.56 and intra-day high of 13,568.09.

The BSE BANKEX and CG indicies also crashed by 69.68 points and 67.26 points and closed at 6841.88 points for BANKEX index and for CG index at 8826.71 points, followed by AUTO index by 25.93 points being quoted at 5205.23 points. MID CAP index was down by 21.38 points and quoted at 5574.40 points, SML CAP index slid by 13.94 points and closed at 6620.86 points.

The S&P CNX Nifty index of NSE lost 16.45 points to 3815.55 points before it resumed flat 3832.15 points. The Nifty index recorded a high and low at 3886.10 points and 3787.55 points during the intra day.

The total turnover on BSE amounted to Rs 3672 crore. The market breadth was negative as selling emerged for small-cap and mid-cap stocks. 1465 shares declined as compared to 1094 that advanced. 83 remained unchanged. Among the Sensex pack, 21 advanced while the rest declined.

Thailand will exclude equities investments from a central bank measure aimed at curbing speculation in the Baht, Thailand's Finance Minister Pridiyathorn Devakula said on Tuesday after the stock market suffered its worst fall in 16 years.

The Nikkei 225 index was up 1.40 per cent at 17,011.04, breaking above the 17,000 mark for the first time since May 11.

Hang Seng index was up 1.45 per cent to 19,240.12. European markets also opened positive, with Spain's Madrid General being an exception. The FTSE 100 index gained 0.44 per cent.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 30.05 points, or 0.24 per cent, to end at a record 12,471.32. The Standard&Poors 500 Index advanced 3.07 points, or 0.22 per cent, to finish at 1,425.55.

But the Nasdaq Composite Index slipped 6.02 points, or 0.25 per cent, to close at 2,429.55.

At London's ICE Futures exchange, oil prices also moved slightly lower, with Brent crude for February delivery down 17 cents to USD 62.64 a barrel, brokers said.

PSU engineering company Bhel settled 0.46 per cent lower at Rs 2276.10 on volume of 3.28 lakh shares after touching a low of Rs 2232. It had lost close to 10 per cent in the past two trading sessions. Tata Motors was the top loser, down 3.22 per cent to Rs 835.10 on 5.46 lakh shares. It had hit a high of Rs 880.40 in early trade.

HLL (down 3.14 per cent to Rs 217.70), Grasim (down 2.29 per cent to Rs 2655) and HDFC Bank (down 1.82 per cent to Rs 1019) edged lower.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) finished 0.24 per cent lower at Rs 1250.10 on high volumes of 13.29 lakh shares. It had recovered from a low of Rs 1231.15.

Tata Steel was the top gainer, up by 2.30 per cent to Rs 465 on 15.75 lakh shares. It recovered from low of Rs 450.10. The stock advanced after Britain's takeover watchdog set a 30 January deadline on Tuesday for India's Tata Steel and Brazil's CSN to make revised offers for Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus Group.

Cipla (up 1.24 per cent to Rs 244), Maruti Udyog (up 1.73 per cent to Rs 925) and HDFC (up 1.97 per cent to Rs 1580) followed.

Diversified conglomerate, ITC rose 1.13 per cent to Rs 170.25 on 15.09 lakh shares after reports that it will expand its fruit and vegetable retail and wholesale business by opening 54 new outlets in select metros in next three years.

Volatility is expected to remain high in the next few days ahead of expiry of December 2006 derivatives contracts next Thursday.

Market men expect December 2006 quarter to be another strong quarter in terms of earnings growth. The Q3 results would start trickling in from about January 12, 2007, brokers said.

UNI

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