Sensex opens with marginal losses

Mumbai, Apr 27: The Sensex today opened with a marginal loss of 9.63 points on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) at 14,219.25 points from its previous close of 14,228.88 on account of heavy profit booking, after a steady rally in the past few sessions.

The broader Nifty Index however opened with a gain of around 5 points on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) at 4,182.00 points from its previous close of 4,177.85.

The total turnover on BSE amounted to Rs 490 crore. The market-breadth was negative, with 617 shares advancing and 719 declining. Among the 30-Sensex pack, 19 declined while the rest advanced.

Pharma major Cipla plunged 14 per cent to Rs 218 on high volumes of 10.99 lakh shares. Cipla reported 34 per cent fall in net profit in Q4 March 2007 at Rs 126 crore from Rs 191 crore, mainly due to a sharp decline in active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) exports and rising material costs.

ONGC (down 1.88 per cent to Rs 942), Hero Honda (down 1.63 per cent to Rs 669), and HDFC (down 1.66 per cent to Rs 1707) were the other losers.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) was down 1.74 per cent to Rs 1,569, on a volume of 2.59 lakh shares. After trading hours yesterday, RIL reported fourth quaterly (Q4) results that beat the market expectations. The company reported 14 per cent growth in net profit in Q4 March 2007 at Rs 2,853 crore as compared to Rs 2,520 crore during the corresponding period last year, on the back of strong refining margins. The company said refining margins for the March 2007 quarter were US 13 dollars a barrel, higher than the benchmark Asian Dubai crack margin, which averaged less than USD 7 in the quarter.

Bajaj Auto was the top gainer, up 1.55 per cent to Rs 2,530, on a volume of 11,569 shares.

NTPC (up 0.92 per cent to Rs 159.70), Ranbaxy (up 0.67 per cent to Rs 375), and Satyam Computers (up 0.92 per cent to Rs 465.50) were the other gainers.

The market-wide rollover of April derivative contracts to May contracts was around 70-72 per cent, which is almost the same as for the previous expiry, but lower than the 12-month average. Many investors let their long positions expire as they do not expect the market to sustain its recent gains, market analysts noted.

The key economic data on weekly inflation is due today. India's wholesale price inflation rate is forecast at 6.09 per cent for the 12 months to 14 April 2007, unchanged from a week earlier. The data will be released around noon. The annual rate hit 6.69 per cent on January 27 this year, its highest in more than two years, but has moderated after the central bank tightened policy and the government cut duties on a range of items to rein in prices, experts explained.

The market may remain sideways, as traders may refrain from building fresh positions ahead of a slew of holidays next week and due to subdued to weak trend in Asian markets. Next week is a short one as the market remains closed for two days in a row, on May 1 and 2, on account of public holidays.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have pumped money heavily into Indian stocks this month. Their inflow picked up after IT major Infosys on April 13 issued a strong guidance for the financial year (FY) 2008, putting to rest concerns of a US economic slowdown on the information technology (IT) sector, market men noted and added that FIIs inflow for April, until April 25, has reached Rs 6,514.20 crore. The FIIs had pulled out Rs 1,082 crore last month.

The Asian stocks nudged lower today, as caution prevailed ahead of first-quarter US economic growth numbers later this session. Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, Japan, China, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan were down between 0.1-1.1 per cent. US data, expected later today, is expected to show that the world's biggest economy expanded at an annualised rate of 1.8 per cent in the first quarter, slowing from a 2.5 per cent pace in the fourth quarter last year.

US stocks gained yesterday on the announcement of better-than-expected profits from such companies as 3M Co and Exxon Mobil Corp, propelling the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average to its second straight close above 13,000. The Dow finished up 15.61 points, or 0.12 per cent, at 13,105.50. The Standard&Poor's 500 Index ended down 1.17 points, or 0.08 per cent, at 1,494.25. The Nasdaq Composite Index closed up 6.57 points, or 0.26 per cent, at 2,554.46.

London Brent crude, currently seen as most representative of global oil prices, was up 17 cents at USD 67.82, supported by a slew of refinery outages in the United States that have thinned gasoline stocks.

UNI