Nifty tumbles by 88 pts on profit booking

Mumbai, Feb 18 (PTI) The pull-back rally witnessed in themarket over the last few sessions came to an abrupt halt withtraders resorting to profit booking in the latter part of thesession today that led to the benchmark S&P CNX Nifty fallingby 87.50 points on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

The 50-share index swung wildly between 5,599.25 and5,441.95 before closing at 5,458.95, down by 87.50 point or1.58 per cent over its previous close.

The session commenced on a highly positive note withconsistent buying in frontline counters amidst buoyancy inglobal markets that took the key-index to close to 5,600 mark.

But later, the market witnessed huge volatility. Theselling pressure emerged in almost all sectors which hadparticipated in the recent pull-back rally indicating awidespread profit-taking by traders.

"It is all-in the game, the recent pull-back rally whichhelped the index recover by 350-points itself is the reasonfor profit-booking,", a trader commented.

Reliance Capital, RCom, Suzlon, RPower, JP Associates,Reliance Infra, BPCL, SAIL, Tata Motors and ONGC were thetop losers from Nifty.

However, Hindustan Lever, Jindal Steel, BHEL, Cipla andDr Reddy''s registered gains.

Total turnover in the cash segment shot up to Rs 14,162crore from Rs 11,790 crore Thursday. A total of 7,407.37 lakhshares changed hands in 70,12,520 trades. The marketcapitalisation stood at Rs 63,30,531 crore.