All eyes on Budget
The bulls again were on the receiving for fourth straight trading session. The markets corrected sharply ahead of an important event ‘The Union Budget 2007’ next week. All round selling pressure in the scrip’s across the sectors dragged the benchmark Sensex to hit an intra-day lown of 13568.08. The key indices traded in red throughout the session all the key indices closed in negative territory with BSE Bank index being the major loser losing 3.42%. Finally, the BSE 30-share Sensex plunged by 388 points to close at 13632 and NSE Nifty dropped 101 points to close at 3938. Grasim, Bharti Airtel, ACC and ICICI Bank were among the major losers. However, GAIL, Tata Steel and Reliance industries were among the major gainers outperforming both the key indices today.
ICICI Bank lost over 4% to Rs907. The company raised deposits and lending rates by 50 basis points. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs954 and low of Rs892 and recorded volumes of over 17,00,000 shares on NSE
Pratibha Industries declined 5% to Rs183. The company announced that they would raise Rs2bn by way of QIP. The scrip touched an intra-day high of 195Rs and low of Rs183 and has recorded volumes of over 12,000 shares on NSE.
Apollo Hospital was down 1.8% to Rs491. According to reports the company is eyeing UK-based Abbey Hospitals. The scrip touched an intra-day high of Rs505 and low of Rs490 and recorded volumes of over 87,000 shares on NSE.
Hexaware dropped over 2.5% to Rs161. The company is reportedly looking at buying an IT firm in Europe or the US. The scrip has touched an intra-day high of Rs170 and low of Rs160 and has recorded volumes of over 1,00,000 shares on NSE.
Pharma stocks stocks were in poor health today on back of profit booking. Ranbaxy dropped over 3% to Rs356, Sun Pharma slipped 3% to Rs974, Cipla dropped 2.5% to Rs241 and Dr Reddy lost 3.5% to Rs681.
Capital Good index was also on the receiving end. Punj Lloyd plunged by over 6% to Rs830, L&T fell over 2.5% to Rs1611, ABB declined 2% to Rs3708 and BHEL was down 0.8% to Rs2276.
Technology stocks ended lower, the indeed fell over 3%. Heavy weights like Wipro fell over 4% to Rs623, Infosys was down 2.2% to Rs2237 and Satyam Computer slipped 2% to Rs449. Rolta, Mastek and Polaris were the major losers among the Mid-Cap stocks.