Market falters after touching new intra-day high

The Sensex was on the verge of touching the 13000 level in early trades and touched a new intra-day high of 12994 before profit taking pulled it down and weighed on the
sentiment throughout the session. The fall came after the Sensex had notched up gains of 574 points in the last three trading sessions. On the back of weak Asian indices, early trades saw the Sensex slip into the red after adding 66 points to its previous close. The cautious trend with a negative bias prevailed for the rest of the trading session, with the index taking a sharp dip in the afternoon to touch the day's low of 12819, 109 points below its last close. Renewed buying in metal and other counters saw the Sensex pare losses to a considerable extent and end the session with losses of 44 points at 12884. The Nifty shed nine points to close at 3715.

Dragging down the Sensex, HDFC Bank tumbled 3.58% at Rs1,009, HLL declined 2.19% at Rs232, HDFC fell 2% at Rs1,515, Infosys dropped 1.13% at Rs2,074, NTPC lost 2.13% at Rs128, TCS dipped 1.46% at Rs1,114, Grasim slipped 1.67% at Rs2,624 and Gujarat Ambuja Cements was down 1.11% at Rs120. However, Satyam rose 3.27% at Rs450, BHEL advanced 1.95% at Rs2,463 and Hero Honda moved up by 1.57% at Rs758.

On the sectoral front, the BSE Metal index jumped 1.33% at 8908 while the BSE FMCG index fell 1.12% at 2048. The market breadth was negative. Of the 2,556 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,646 stocks declined, 838 stocks advanced and 72 stocks ended unchanged.

Movers & Shakers

* Cadila Healthcare gained on receiving the USFDA nod to market Zonisamide capsules in the USA.
* Micro Technologies declined despite signing an agreement for Home Security System Micro HSS with Macrosoft Associates of the USA.


Among the metal stocks Hindustan Zinc soared 9.74% at Rs820, Binani Industries surged 5.24% at Rs309, SAIL gained 4% at Rs86, Kalyani Steel added 3.88% at Rs321 and Lanco Industries moved up by 3.67% at Rs41. Bhushan Steel Strips, Ispat Industries, Sterlite Industries and GMDC were up 1-3% each.

Over 93.08 lakh Nandan Exim Bank shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Atlanta (79.03 lakh shares), Gayatri Projects (46.80 lakh shares), Action Construction Equipment (36.31 lakh shares) and SAIL (34.67 lakh shares).

Value-wise Atlanta registered a turnover of Rs265 crore on the BSE followed by Hindustan Zinc (Rs198 crore), Gayatri Projects (Rs148 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs129 crore) and Satyam (Rs98 crore).