Sensex ends 136 points lower on profit booking

Profit booking was the main reason behind today’s fall as the markets had rallied quite sharply yesterday. The Sensex fell 136 points and the Nifty slid 48 points. Major Headlines UBL gains on stake sale report Oil Min seeks Rs400 bln extra cash compensation from FM FM hints roll back of excise duty on unbranded jewellery Govt should consider diesel decontrol: Rangarajan Indian Indices Indian markets turned volatile in today’s trade after a huge upside in the previous session. Profit booking was seen in majority of the sectors like consumer durables, banking, PSU, realty, Oil & Gas and other sectors except FMCG and Pharma which were the only gaining sectors. Heavyweights like ICICI Bank, Infy, ONGC, SBI, HDFC Bank, HDFC and RIL also led the markets to remain under pressure. Lack of supportive cues from global peers led to a lacklustre trade. European markets too turned negative after initial gains. Overall, it was rangebound session ahead of F&O expiry tomorrow (March 29, 2012). Today's fall was majorly led by banks due to the tight liquidity situation. State Bank of India (SBI) dropped 2.28% after the bank raised deposit rates by 25-100 basis points for deposits maturing within one year amid tight liquidity condition. Corporates had withdrawn money for paying advance tax by March. Sensex stood 136 points lower at 17122 and the nifty fell 48 points to close at 5195. Market sentiment: The market breadth stood in favour of declines. Of the 3015 stocks traded on the BSE, 889 (29.49%) rose, 2030 (67.33%) fell and 96 (3.18%) remained unchanged. Viewing volumes: A non-banking financial company - Manappuram Finance was traded the most, with over 0.88 crore shares changing hands on the BSE. Following that a real estate development company - HDIL (0.77 crore shares), an integrated infrastructure development company - Lanco Infratech (0.52 crore shares), Wind turbine major - Suzlon Energy (0.48 crore shares) and an infrastructure holding company - GMR Infrastructure (0.31 crore shares). Sectoral & stock screening: All the sectors closed in negative, barring BSE FMCG and BSE HC marginally up by 0.29% and 0.22%. The topmost losers were BSE CD which declined 3.32%, BSE Bankex fell 1.73% and BSE PSU dropped 1.58%. Among 'A' group stocks, top three gainers were - United Spirits which advanced 4.89%, India Securities gained 3.36% and Muthoot Finance surged 2.97%. The top three losers were - Gitanjali Gems which dropped 6.70%, Titan Industries fell 5.80% and HDIL declined 5.72%. Global Signals: European shares were trading lower on Wednesday (March 28, 2012), due to the cautious comments made by Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke on Tuesday. There are hopes that euro-zone leaders can reach an agreement on a firewall increase at Friday's Eurogroup meeting. The Asian shares closed lower on Wednesday as investors waited for more clues on the state of the US economy, after hopes for further stimulus from the US Federal Reserve which strengthened risk appetite and lifted prices in the previous session. The Stock index futures pointed to a higher opening on Wall Street on Wednesday. Market Outlook: Data to be released in the US on Wednesday is:- Durable Goods Orders and EIA Petroleum Status Report.