Sensex suffers a moderate setback; falls 35.85 pts

Mumbai, July 10: Profit booking at higher levels in pivotals pulled down the 30-stock Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex by 35.85 points, but it still settled above the 15,000 mark today.

The market opened on a firm note and continued the uptrend till the afternoon. But the negative trend in Asian markets and profit booking had impact on the local bourses, marketmen said.

Select IT, Auto stocks and Pharma stocks contributed to the uptrend while Banking, telecom and select IT stocks aided the decline during the course of trading.

Reflecting the trend, the 30-stock BSE Sensex opened at 15,100.13 points, touched the day's high of 15114.95 points, fell below the 15000 mark, before finishing at 15,009.88 poins, netting a loss of 35.85 points from the previous close of 15,045.73 points.

Similarly, the S&P Cnx Nifty index made a start at 4419.01 points, touched the day's high of 4434.45 points, fell below the 4400 mark to touch the day's low of 4393.00 points, but closed at 4406.05 points, showing a net decline of 13.35 points from the previous close of 4406.05 points.

The IT stocks continued to be in demand today while the old economy, particularly infrastructure stocks, ended lower on selling pressure, marketmen said.

Among the issues, Infosys shot up by Rs 26.85 ahead of its quarterly results, Satyam Computer went up by Rs 4.70 to Rs 496.20, Tata motor advanced by Rs 24.60 to Rs 740, Maruti gained by Rs 20.90 to Rs 815, Bajaj Auto firmed up by Rs 22.75 to Rs 2128, Mahindra and Mahindra rose by Rs 5.70 to Rs 785, Dr Reddy's lab gained by Rs 4.05 to Rs 680, Cipla posted a gain by Rs 0.75 to Rs 211.90 and Ranbaxy registering a gain of Rs 0.25 to Rs 362.10 The top losers included Reliance Communication, finishing lower by Rs 9.95 to Rs 542.40, HDFC Bank down by Rs 19.05 to Rs 1149.05, SBI eased sharply by Rs 24.25 to Rs 1547, Bharati Airtel declined by Rs 13.55 to Rs 13.55, L&T went down by Rs 35.80 to Rs 2380, ITC posted a decline by Rs 2.20 to Rs 153.55, ACC was down by Rs 10.30 to Rs 1036 and ICICI Bank moved down by Rs 8.45 to Rs 962.

Asian indices were trading mixed today, with Japan's Nikkei 225 declining due to banking stocks such as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group posting losses. Nikkei slipped 0.16 per cent to 18,232.90. Shanghai Composite was down 0.78 per cent to 3,853.21.

Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted (up 0.16 per cent to 9,384.73), Hong Kong's Hang Seng (up 0.30 per cent at 22,885.84), and South Korea's Seoul Composite (up 0.58 per cent at 1,894.53) edged higher.

In London, the FTSE index was down by 0.17 per cent at 6701.60 points.

In Europe, Wall Street edged higher in an erratic session, The Dow Jones industrials rose 38.29 points, or 0.28 per cent, to 13,649.97. Broader market indexes also moved higher. The Standard&Poor's 500 index rose 1.41 points, or 0.09 per cent, to 1,531.85, and the Nasdaq Composite index added 3.51 points, or 0.13 per cent, to 2,670.02.

The stock markets in India ended weak despite softening of oil prices in the international market. Brent crude oil eased today after a seven-day rally lifted prices to their highest in 11 months.

London Brent crude fell 31 cents to U S Dollar 75.47 a barrel. US crude inched down 7 cents to U S Dollar 72.12 a barrel.

As per provisional data, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 841.64 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net sellers of shares worth Rs 236.85 crore yesterday.

Reflecting the market trend, at the BSE, among the sectoral indices, BSE-IT index shot up by 40.33 points at 5036, Auto went up by 56.95 points at 4945.84 poiunts, BSE-Metal index advanced smartly by 71.91 points to 10942 and the newly joined 'BSE Realty index gained by 43.56 points to close at 7377.53 points.

The fall in Bankex, Consumer durable, Oil and Gas and PSU sectors was exhibited by the sectoral indices. The BSE Bankex was down by 75.63 points at 8104.09 points, BSE-CD index ended lower by 56.93 points at 4137, Oil and Gas index down by 38.35 points at 7615 and PSU index drifted lower by 18.84 points at 6889 points.

The BSE clocked a total turnover of Rs 5024 crore and the NSE Rs 10,719.66 crore today.

UNI