The Hindu Business Line : Profit booking at higher levels clips earlier gains

The stock markets opened with a positive sentiment on the back of good results and crude prices hitting an eight-month low on Wednesday. Infosys' good results pushed the BSE Sensex to a high of 12,514 points, but profit-booking at higher levels dragged the indices to lower levels.

The 30-share index ended the day at 12,353.49 points, a net loss of 10.28 points or 0.08 per cent from Tuesday's close of 12,363.77 points.

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Despite the strong close in the US market most of the Asian markets closed weak; the breadth of the Indian markets wasclearly in favour of the losers.

Advances to declines were in the ratio of 1:2. The Nifty too closed in the red at 3,558.55, shedding about 13 points.

Stock-specific Action

Infosys Technologies reported a profit that beat analyst estimates. The earnings were helped by orders from Europe. The stock hit a high of Rs 2,024, but ended at Rs 1,981.35, a 3.95 per cent gain over its previous close.

The stock of iGate Global Solutions gained Rs 40 to close the day at Rs 236. The company has posted a net profit of Rs 10.6 crore compared with last year's profit of Rs 59 crore. The Street also greeted another IT stock Mastek that came out with good results. The company posted a net profit of Rs 17.9 crore (Rs 12.5 crore) for the September quarter. The stock gained 3.69 per cent to end the day at Rs 369.85.

Despite an improved profit, BASF India lost 3.7 per cent to close at Rs 230.9.

Sector Focus

Barring the IT stocks, most of the sectors ended the day in red. Metal stocks were the worst losers. SAIL, Tata Steel, Jindal Steel and Hindalco shed between 2 and 3 per cent. Hindustan Zinc was an exception with the stock adding Rs 48 to close Rs 709.

Automobile sector that had some gainers in the previous day's trade came in for some profit booking barring the Escorts, which added less than a Re 1 to the previous day's tally.

Tata Motors led the pack of losers. The stock shed Rs 30. Others included Ashok Leyland, Mahindra & Mahindra, Eicher Motors and Maruti Udyog.

Healthcare sector, which has under performed for a long time, had another tough day. Aventis Pharma lost Rs 150 to end at Rs 1,569. Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Ranbaxy Laboratories, GlaxoSmithKline all shed 2-3 per cent.

Capital goods stocks such as Larsen & Toubro, BHEL, ABB, Alstom Projects India and Bharat Electronics were some of the losers. However, a few stocks that closed in green were SKF India, Ingersol-Rand and Praj Industries.

Gainers and Losers

HDFC Bank, HPCL, BPCL, Patni Computers, Tata Power, Satyam Computer and Wipro were some of the prominent gainers on the NSE. The notable losers were Siemens, Zee Telefilms, Gujarat Ambuja Cements, Moser Baer and MTNL.