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Alagappan Arunachalam

THE market of late appears to be on a profit-booking mode, as it has fallen for the third consecutive day. The sharp rally in the post-Budget sessions appears to have faded off.

The undertone of the market was cautious, for every two stocks that advanced on the Sensex, three registered declines. The declines outnumbered the advances in all sectors and categories. The Sensex opened marginally higher at 6815.59 points, and then the market went on to trade in the negative territory.

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Towards the close, the Sensex recovered marginally from the day's low of 6730.23 points to close at 6752.45, down nearly 56 points. The Sensex has lost 155 points over last three sessions. The S&P CNX Nifty opened more or less flat for a short period in the early hours. The Nifty traded in the positive territory. Giving into selling pressure on account profit booking, the Nifty later slumped into negative territory; it closed by 0.81 per cent.

The petroleum stocks lost value on the back of a recent spurt in the international prices of crude, coupled by the Petroleum Minister's statement of a limited autonomy to fix prices for petrol and diesel. Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum, GAIL, Chennai Petroleum Corporation, Kochi Refineries and Mangalore Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals closed lower. However, ONGC and Indian Oil Corporation bucked the trend. After opening on a strong note, the Oil & Gas index on the BSE, plunged into the red, closing lower by 0.83 per cent.

Sugar stocks were in the limelight, as fresh buying interest was evident in the low value stocks. Dhampur Sugar, Rajshree Sugar, Sakhti Sugars and Oudh Sugar put on smart gains of more than five per cent. Balrampur Chini bucked the trend, with its the stock closing at Rs 688.6 a premium. The company had on Monday announced the fixing of the FII cap at ten per cent and the issue of 19.33 lakh shares to two FIIs at Rs 585 per share on a preferential basis.

Steel stocks witnessed a mixed trend. Ispat Industries, Uttam Galva Steels and Indian Seamless Steels & Alloys put on smart gains of more than two per cent. Essar Steel, backed by strong volumes, jumped 6.37 per cent to close at Rs 64.3; the stock has gained nearly Rs 14 since Thursday. Jindal Steel, Jindal Vijaynagar Steel, SAIL and Lloyd Steel lost value.

Lower volumes were traded on the IT counter. Stocks of HCL Technologies, i-flex, Infosys Technologies, Mphasis BFL, Polaris and Satyam Computers shed value. Patni Computers bucked the trend. With a nearly 47-fold jump in volumes, the stock closed higher by 3.25 per cent.

Pharma stocks witnessed a mixed trend. Aurobindo Pharma, Cadila Healthcare, Matrix Labs, Novartis India and Ranbaxy closed lower. Divi's Laboratories, on the back of buying interest, gained Rs 51.45. Other gainers in the Pharma sector were Dr Reddy's Laboratories, FDC, GlaxoSmithKline and Nicholas Piramal.

Telecom stocks Bharti Televentures, MTNL, VSNL and Tata Teleservices closed down by more than one per cent. Balaji Telefilms, NDTV, TV Eighteen and Zee Telefilms shed value. Shree Adhikari Brothers continued its slide to close lower by 6 per cent.

Profit booking was evident in the banking sector. Fifteen out of 17 stocks on the BSE Bankex shed value. Leading the pack were UCO Bank, Union Bank, UTI Bank, J & K Bank and Punjab National Bank.

Prominent gainers on the Nifty were Cipla, Tata Steel, Sun Pharmaceuticals, ITC and Dabur. Significant losers among the Nifty constituents were Reliance Energy, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Hero Honda, Tata Motors and Hindustan Lever.

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