Bulls take a breather
The Markets snapped up a 2-day winning streak on the New year and closed lower with Sensex closing 13872, down by 143 points and NSE Nifty losing 35 points to close at 3989. Profit booking was seen in Infosys, Bajaj Auto, Wipro and SBI. However, select Mid-cap stocks rallied further. In addition, the mood was dampened weak Asian markets. Hang Seng Index lost over 380 points. While, The Nikkei 225 Stock Average climbed 0.7% to an eight-month high. However, US stocks erased an initial rally in 2007's first trading day after minutes from the Dec. 12 meeting of Federal Reserve policy makers suggested that the central bank was still concerned about slowing economic growth and accelerating inflation.
The only positive factors this morning was the fact that oil prices have fallen towards the $58 per barrel mark, which lifted the refinery stocks higher. BPCL, HPCL and IOC were among the major beneficiaries.
Technology stocks witnessed some profit booking after being in the limelight in the recent trading sessions. Satyam, Wipro and Mphasis BFL were among the major losers. HCL Tech lost 1.8% to Rs620 and Infosys was down by over 1% to Rs2285.
Pharma stocks recorded healthy gains. Ranbaxy, Sun Pharma, Glaxo and Dr Reddy's Labs were among the major gainers. Lupin edged higher to Rs609 after the company received Tentative nod for Generic of Pfizer's Zoloft. Ranbaxy added 0.5% to Rs413, Dr Reddys Labs was up by over 2% at Rs828.
Heavy profit booking was seen in FMCG stocks led by drop in ITC. The scrip lost nearly 4% to Rs169 on concerns that Value-Added Tax may be put on Cigarettes and HLL was down by 1% to Rs211. Others like Archies, Colgate and Marico Industries were among the major losers.