The Hindu Business Line : Sensex sheds 173 points

Selling pressure caused the BSE Sensex to shed 172.54 points or 1.23 per cent to close at 13,799.49 on Friday. The NSE S&P CNX Nifty ended low 53.35 points or 1.33 per cent to close at 3,962. The market succumbed to heavy selling on hectic profit booking in most of the front-line counters.

"The Sensex began trading with a positive gap and rose to touch an intra-day high of 14,009.56. The index soon slipped sharply as the session progressed. We see this as a short correction only," said a dealer at Networth Stock Broking Ltd.

All the BSE indices ended the day in negative. The battered Oil & Gas index dipped 2.21 per cent to close at 6,095.46. The Auto index dipped 1.58 per cent to settle at 5,393.16 points.

Losers and gainers

"The market saw traders squaring," said Mr Lalit Thakker, Director - Research, Angel Broking. "One cannot term the slump as `profit booking' as investors have not made profits selling their holds. The market has hardly moved over the past four days," said Mr Thakker.

Tata Motors (down 2.85 per cent at Rs 866.80), Hindustan Level Ltd (down 2.73 per cent at Rs 233.80) and Reliance Industries (down 2.33 per cent to close at Rs 1,267.80) led the market fall.

Reliance Energy (up 2.85 per cent to close at Rs 555.05) and Dr Reddy's Laboratories (up 2.33 per cent to end at Rs 775.30) were the major gainers of the day. The market breadth was negative on the BSE. Of the 2,655 stocks traded, 1,586 stocks declined, 1,011 stocks advanced and 58 stocks ended unchanged.