The Hindu : Business : Sensex sheds 64 points

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Thursday, Mar 23, 2006

Business

Business

Sensex sheds 64 points

MUMBAI: The Bombay Stock Exchange sensitive index swung by over 150 points in an extremely choppy trading on Wednesday and closed 64 points down at 10,841.35 largely due to heavy profit selling alternated by bear covering at lower levels amid continued inflows from institutional investors.

The market adjusted to a downward correction for the second day in a row after touching the 11,000 mark in the previous trading session.

The BSE benchmark 30-share index (Sensex) turned highly erratic after opening marginally lower at 10,900.02 and fluctuated between 10,935.09 and 10,784.42 before closing the day at 10,841.35 against Tuesday's close of 10,905.20, a net fall of 63.85 points.

Operators and retail investors adopted a cautious approach and took profits along with day traders, brokers said adding that ``bears, however, resisted by covering positions at the day's lower levels leading a smart recovery from the day's low.''

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) and local mutual fundswere believed to be buyers in pharmaceutical stocks. The FIIs and mutual funds reported heavy net investments of Rs. 4,300 crore and Rs. 2,625 crore till March 20.

Heavyweights such as RIL, SBI, Infosys Technologies, L&T, Wipro, Maruti Udyog, Bharti Tele-Ventures, ICICI Bank, Hindalco and Hero Honda led the pack of losers.

However, Dr. Reddy's Lab rallied sharply and closed with sharp gains. Cipla, HLL, HDFC Bank, HDFC, BHEL, Tata Motors, Satyam Computer and Tata Power scored handsome gains.

PTI

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