Profit booking pulls down Sensex from 14,700mark

Mumbai, Feb 9: Profit booking in index heavy-weights pulled downthe BSE Sensex from the new high of 14,700 points to 14,613 points inthe morning trade today.

The 30-stock Bombay Stock Exchange(BSE) Sensitive Index(Sensex)opened firm at 14,684.35 points, surpassed the 14,700 mark by touchingthe new high of 14,723.88 points, fell to the low of 14,591.75 pointsand currently traded at 14,613.94 points, down by 38.15 points from theprevious close.

The S&P CNX Nifty index at the National Stock Exchange (NSE)was also down by 14.50 points at 4,208.90 points from the previousclose.

Barring the Auto sector, almost all the sectors were down at the BSE.

The possible split in auto major Bajaj Auto encouraged buyers atthe counter, as a result of which shares of Bajaj Auto shot up.

Stock makrets in Asia were up today while the US Matkets recorded weakness yesterday.

The Nikkei was up 86.50 points at 17,378.98 as of 0016 GMT. The broad TOPIX index was up 0.71 per cent at 1,732.39.

Kawasaki Kisen, Japan's third-largest shipper, gained eight percent to 1,127 yen, recovering from a decline of 4.2 per cent in theprevious session when its earnings disappointed.

The Dow Jones industrial average(DJI) was down 86.92 points, or0.69 percent, at 12,579.95. The Standard&Poor's 500 Index wasdown 6.61 points, or 0.46 percent, at 1,443.41. The NASDAQ CompositeIndex was down 10.52 points, or 0.42 percent, at 2,479.98.

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