Market gives up early gains; IT, telecom stocks slide

Market gave away mid-afternoon gains and settled lower following sudden fall in European markets. Volatility was high today. IT and banking stocks slumped. Telecom stocks lost ground. Oil & gas, auto and capital goods stocks edged higher. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries rallied. Asian indices ended on a mixed note.

The 30-share BSE Sensex provisionally ended down 134.75 points or, 0.69% at 19265.92. It touched a high of 19,678.50 in early trade, which was a gain of 277.83 points for the day. Sensex touched a low of 19,249.47 in late trade, at which it had lost 151.20 points for the day.

The broader S&P CNX Nifty was down 13.2 points, or, 0.23% at 5773.30, as per provisional closing.

The market breadth was negative. On BSE, 1033 stocks advanced, while 1667 stocks declined and 77 stocks remained unchanged. 20 out of 30 stocks declined from the Sensex pack.

The BSE Mid-Cap index was down 31 points or 0.39% at 7,984.30, while the BSE Small-Cap was down 111.70 points or 1.14% at 9,691.33.

BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 6837 crore, lower than Tuesday (6 November 2007)’s Rs 9922 crore.

Reliance Industries gained 3.82% to Rs 2757.05. Bharat heavy Electrical (Bhel) rose 3.70% to Rs 2825. Maruti Suzuki India jumped 2.46% to Rs 997.10. Mahindra & Mahindra moved up 2.30% to Rs 758. State Bank of India rose 2.23% to Rs 2258.

Infosys Technologies slumped 6.20% to Rs 1736. HDFC Bank dropped 5.10% to Rs 1619. Satyam Computers fell 4.66% to Rs 432. ICICI Bank gave away 280% to Rs 1206.10. Wipro fell 3.25% to Rs 471.50.

The BSE IT index lost 216.67 points or 4.77% at 4,324.02. The BSE Auto index provisionally settled 9.28 points or, 0.18% higher at 5,286.52. The BSE Bankex fell 185.87 or, 1.72% at 10,600.64. The BSE Capital Goods gained 61.85 points or, 0.31% at 19,759.14. The BSE Oil & Gas index rose 272.61 points or, 2.39% at 11,661.82.

European equities dropped, wiping out gains registered earlier during the day as the euro hit a fresh record high above $1.47 stoking worries over the impact on corporate earnings. France’s CAC 40 was down 1.11% to 5,646.12, UK’s FTSE 100 was down 1.37% to 6,386.30 and Germany’s DAX was down 0.58% to Rs 7,782.02.

Asian markets were mixed. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was up 0.92% at 29,708.93. Taiwan’s Taiwan Weighted was up 0.08% at 9,300.22. Singapore’s Straits Times was down 0.27% at 3,673.01. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 0.94% at 16,096.68. South Korea’s Seoul Composite was down 0.54% at 2,043.19.

On Wall Street, energy stocks such as Exxon Mobil gained ground on Tuesday, 6 November 2007, helping send the blue chip Dow up 0.9%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 1.1%.

Yesterday, 6 November 2007, the Indian market had failed to participate in rally in Asian stocks on Tuesday, 6 November 2007, when Sensex lost 190.11 points or 0.97% to 19,400.67, in contrast to a 1% rise in MSCI's measure of Asia Pacific stocks ex-Japan.