MUMBAI, JUNE 1: Shares on the Bombay Stock Exchange cut a five-day rally as profit booking in old economy stocks brought prices down. The Sensex dropped by 108 points even as technology shares remained mixed. A fall of nearly 58 points on the Nasdaq Composite Index last evening also triggered off selling in IT and communication company stocks. The BSE Sensitive index started lower at 4206.52 in the early trades and moved between 4412.20 and 4321.26 points before closing at 4325.47, a 2.44 per cent loss against Wednesday's closing of 4433.61 points. The BSE-100 index lost 52.44 points to 2104.55. Similarly, the 50-share National Stock Exchange index closed 2.34 per cent or 31.45 points down at 1,349.00. Brokers said that the profit taking was due to technical considerations of the market following sharply nearly 13 per cent rise in prices in the previous five sessions. Besides some amount of squaring-up ahead of the end of account at the BSE on Friday was also seen. Leading losers were Reliance Industries down Rs 4.70 at Rs 339, L&T Rs 5.30 at Rs 183.70, Bajaj Auto Rs 5.90 at Rs 359.10, Grasim Rs 11.9 at Rs 262, Hindustan Lever Rs 76.8 at Rs 2,488.15 and BSES Rs 5.80 at Rs 279.90 on selling pressure. Due to bad annual results, ACC lost further by Rs 4.30 at Rs 109.20 hit by a loss of Rs 59 crore as compared to a profit of Rs 56.84 crore in the previous year, being worse than expectations. On the positive side, Bombay Dyeing was in keen demand on better- than-expected working results for fiscal year 1999/2000 and Himachal Futuristic was also in limelight on speculative buying.Out of 139 traded specified shares, 119 showed sharp to moderate losses while 19 gained. M&M and HPCL closed at the end of extended downward circuit band. Among the top traded securities, Himachal Futuristic remained the most active scrip with a turnover of Rs 500.69 crore in the total business volume of 3038.38 crore and the share price closed at Rs 1132.00, a smart rise of Rs 95.75.
