Market succumbs to profit booking, Nifty slips 33 pts

Mumbai, Jan 19 (PTI) Once again nervousness took over themarket sentiment with cautious investors resorting to profitbooking as the benchmark S&P CNX shed 33 points to end lowerat the National Stock Exchange (NSE) here today.

The 50-share index swung between 5,747.65 and 5,662.55before closing at 5,691.05, down 33.00 points or 0.58 per centover its previous close.

Market resumed with a soft start carrying overnightpositive sentiment it traded higher for a brief period withsupportive global cues.

The mood turned weak during mid-afternoon trade asvolatility slowly crept in following intense selling intechnology, capital goods and FMCGs counters pulled down thekey index below the important 5,700-mark.

However, buying in Auto, metal, realty and select bankingcounters helped to recover some of its lost ground.

"Cautiousness due to rate hike fears mars the investorssentiments, so they are taking profits at every rise," traderssaid.

Ambuja Cements, Suzlon, GAIL, Infosys, SBIN, Hero Honda,L&T, Ranbaxy, HDFC Bank and Reliance were the top losers fromthe Nifty.

However, SAIL, HCL Tech, DLF, Sterlite Industries, SesaGoa, Hindalco, Reliance Infra, Kotak Bank, Bajaj Auto andICICI Bank were registered handsome gains.

Total turnover in the cash segment rose to Rs 13,132.63crore from Rs 11,403.33 crore yesterday. A total of 7,047.62lakh shares changed hands in 59,83,359 trades and marketcapitalisation stood at Rs 66,61,245 crore at the end of day.