Bears make comeback, Sensex falls 85 pts

After hiding in the shadows for many days, bears came back to the stock markets on Tuesday. Profit-booking in old economy stocks and sustain...

After hiding in the shadows for many days, bears came back to the stock markets on Tuesday. Profit-booking in old economy stocks and sustained selling in tech stocks dragged the market lower on Tuesday after recent gains.

Wiping out a good part of the gains of the last couple of sessions, the BSE Sensitive Index (Sensex) ended with a loss of 84.58 points, or 1.43%, at 5,850.61. The Sensex had risen 119.32 points in the previous two trading sessions, led by smart gains in PSU stocks. The NSE S&P CNX Nifty Index shed 19.20 points, or 1.02 %, to end at 1,866.05. The mood in the market turned bearish as investors rushed to book profits after recent PSU-led gains. Tech stocks, following the rising outcry against outsourcing in the US, led the weakness on the bourses. The undertone, however, is still optimistic as fears of a liquidity crunch disappeared with the ONGC issue getting subscribed over 5 times.

With Tuesday’s loss, the Sensex narrowed its gains for the year 2004 to 11.65 points. At the current levels, while it trades 299 points above its recent low of 5,551.64 touched on February 27, 2004, it still trades 399 points below its all-time high of 6,249.60 touched on January 9, 2004. Profit booking was expected in stocks after the recent rise in any case.

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Prior to Tuesday’s fall, the BSE Sensex had gained 383.55 points to 5,935.19 from a recent low of 5,551.64 touched intra-day on February 27 on renewed buying in blue chips – notably PSUs. “The market is poised for further decline after the PSU offers close in the coming days,” says NSE dealer Pradeep Bhavnani.

Marketmen expect the market to recover on the back of strong economic and corporate fundamentals. Expectations of quarterly results are going to be the next drivers of sentiment. The trend of sustained inflows from foreign institutional investors (FIIs) was broken on Friday (March 5) with foreign funds pulling out a net Rs 16.90 crore, compared to their inflow of Rs 256.70 crore on Thursday (March 4). In fact, Friday’s FII outflow of Rs 16.90 crore came after FIIs put in Rs 1,212 crore in the preceding four trading sessions.

HPCL (down 3.55% to Rs 511.45) dropped, but was off its intra-day low of Rs 502.60. Cement pivotals Grasim (down 4.42% to Rs 1,171.10), L&T (down 2.35% to Rs 590.90), ACC (down 1.87% to Rs 272.15) were significant losers. Automobile pivotals Tata Motors (down 2.78% to Rs 520), Hero Honda Motor (down 1.56% to Rs 529.70) and Bajaj Auto (down 1.51% to Rs 908.95) declined on profit-booking after recent gains. Infosys Technologies (down 2.70% to Rs 4,970.30) was off its day’s low of Rs 4,870.55. Satyam Computer fell from a high of Rs 303.25 to a low of Rs 295.30 before settling at Rs 298, down 1.55% from its previous close.

Hindustan Lever (down 1.25% to Rs 154.50) dipped as selling pressure continued. The HLL stock has been trading weak of late after the company cut the prices of its lead detergent brands. The HLL stock has declined nearly 25% from a recent high of Rs 205.75 touched on February 16. Reliance Industries (down 2.25% to Rs 583.45) and ITC (down 0.61% to Rs 1,170) contributed to the weakness of the market. ONGC declined from Rs 872 to an intra-day low of Rs 826.

Nepal Army chief steps in, ex-Chief Justice agrees to be interim head

World4 hr ago

General Ashok Raj Sigdel successfully convinced former Chief Justice Sushila Karki to become the interim Chief Executive after violent protests led to the fall of the K P Sharma Oli government. He held talks with various groups and proposed an interim government to restore peace. Karki, with the support of the Nepal Army, will work towards delivering a new Constitution.

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