Profit booking takes its toll

Weak global cues and choppy trading ahead of the expiry of the June F&O series ensured that the market remained in the red today. Despite weak Asian markets the Sensex opened on a positive note but soon slipped into the red on selling pressure in heavyweights and metal stocks. The Sensex fell sharply as investors sold for profits and touched the early low of 14433. However, buying at lower levels by the afternoon saw the Sensex pare most of its losses, but the benchmark index again tumbled on unabated selling in public sector, metal and auto stocks, touching the day's low of 14407. The Sensex finally closed the session at 14431, down 70 points. The Nifty ended the session down 21 points at 4264.

The breadth of the market was weak, with the losers outnumbering the gainers in a ratio of 1.06:1. Of the 2,647 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,338 stocks declined, 1,245 stocks advanced and 64 stocks ended unchanged. Most of the sectoral indices ended weak. The BSE PSU index slipped by 1.04% followed by the BSE Auto index (down 0.87%), the BSE Metal index (down 0.79%) and the BSE Bankex (down 0.64%).

Among the major losers, Tata Motors slipped 2.40% at Rs668, NTPC tumbled by 2.09% at Rs150, Reliance Communication declined by 2.05% at Rs515, Reliance Energy plunged by 1.97% at Rs578, ACC dropped 1.93% at Rs829, Bharti Airtel crumbled by 1.81% at Rs835, ONGC slumped 1.57% at Rs921 and Ranbaxy fell by 1.41% at Rs343. However, Satyam Computer gained 2.55% at Rs468 and Hero Honda moved up by 1.07% at Rs677 while TCS, Grasim, Infosys, Dr Reddy's Lab, HLL, Gujarat Ambuja, Wipro and Bajaj Auto ended with modest gains.

PSU stocks took a beating on the bourses. Bank of Baroda slipped by 2.92% at Rs259, Union Bank crashed by 2.36% at Rs128, SAIL shed 2.28% at Rs131, Mangalore Refineries lost 2.17% at Rs41 and Bharat Petroleum dropped 2.14% at Rs331.

Over 1.80 crore IFCI shares changed hands on the BSE followed by IKF Technologies (82.45 lakh shares), Reliance Petroleum (79.42 lakh shares), GV Films (62.22 lakh shares) and Nelcast (60.95 lakh shares).

Value-wise GMR Infrastructure clocked a turnover of Rs297 crore on the BSE followed by Indiainfoline (Rs138 crore), Nelcast (Rs131 crore), Suzlon Energy (Rs124 crore) and Entertainment Network (Rs116 crore).