Sensex snaps six-day winning streak

The market snapped 6 sessions’ winning streak as investors booked profit. Banking, metal, auto and cement shares edged lower. A number of small-cap and mid-cap stocks lost ground.

But oil-marketing firms surged as crude oil price fell to one year low on Thursday.

The market breadth was quite weak. 1871 shares declined on BSE as compared to 657 shares that rose. 63 shares were unchanged. Losers outpaced gainers by a ratio of 2.8:1. The breadth weakened continuously during the course of the trading sessions.

The 30-share BSE Sensex lost 76.41 points or 0.5% to settle at 13,429.48

The market was volatile.

Sensex had opened with a huge upward gap of 172.15 points at a record high of 13,678.04 but it came off immediately after striking that high. It was index heavyweight Infosys Technologies that caused a spike in Sensex at open followed by its sharp fall from that record peak instantly.

Rise in each of the past 6 trading sessions had taken Sensex to lifetime closing high of 13,505.89 on Thursday 16 November from 13,072.51 on 8 November.

BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 4472 crore today compared to Thursday’s Rs 6125.73 crore.

Oil marketing firms surged as crude oil price fell to one year low on Thursday. BPCL (Rs 378.90), Indian Oil Corporation (Rs 511.05) and HPCL (Rs 319.90) rose between 4.7% 6.3%.

NTPC jumped nearly 4% to Rs 140.30. The company said on Friday it planned to invest Rs 3425 crore to set up a 520-megawatt hydro power project.

Housing finance major HDFC rose 3.3% to Rs 1608 on the reckoning that the housing loan demand may remain strong. The stock hit a high of Rs 1616 which is a lifetime high for the scrip.

Dr Reddy’s Lab lost nearly 5% to Rs 738. The pricing of its ADR issue at $16 per ADR was below market expectation which hit the counter.

Infosys shed 0.1% to Rs 2190. The stock had surged over 9% in opening trade to Rs 2401 due to a punching error.

Sterlite Industries plunged 6% to Rs 510 as fall in word copper prices accelerated, amid emerging signs of a supply overhang, with Chinese speculators again offloading future positions. But Hindalco fell only marginally by 0.8% to Rs 174.25. Sterlite had on Thursday filed for a mega $2 billion ADR issue.

The latest data showing a rise in inflation pulled shares of private sector banks lower ICICI Bank lost 1.2% to Rs 877 and HDFC dropped 1.9% to Rs 1122. But State Bank of India (up 0.7% to Rs 1229) ended in the positive zone after a block deal in FII segment was executed in the scrip at 19% premium to the market price.

Reliance Industries lost 0.4% to Rs 1258.10. Reliance Industries has bagged an offshore exploration block in Timor Leste. RIL will have a majority interest and operator-ship in that block, RIL said today. Reports on Thursday said Reliance Industries has raised the gas production estimate of its D-6 block in the Krishna Godavari basin to 120 mmscmd from the initial development plan of 40 mmscmd

Zee Telefilms rose 0.4% to Rs 334.50. Zee Telefilms today said the Bombay High Court has approved its demerger scheme which paves the way for setting the record date for the demerger of the cable and distribution and news and regional broadcasting businesses of Zee into Wire & Wireless India Ltd (WWIL) and Zee News Ltd (ZNL) respectively. The Record Date is likely to fall in the latter half of December. The shareholders of the company as on the record date will be allotted shares in WWIL & Zee. The company expects this process to be completed by February 2007.