Pivotals dip on profit-taking

Brokers said that the sentiment turned subdued due to technical considerations of the market following sharp uptrend in the previous session. Foreign funds, however, made fresh purchases. Software scrips remained in the limelight with handsome gains on sustained buying support. Speculators were pressing for sales. There was heavy unloading in some key scrips to square off their outstandingpositions ahead of the end-of-the-account on Friday to avoid high carry forward charges. The volume of business was substantially down at Rs 1133.67 crore.

On NSE, after an initial gain, share prices turned easy on emergence of profit-taking and closed with widespread losses. The NSE-50 opened better at 1206.35 and rose to 1215.05. Later, it fell to 1194.50 and finally settled at 1197.05, showing a fresh fall of 9.25. The Midcap index, after a firm start at 1632.20 rallied to a high of 1661.55, before concluding at 1616.70, showing a big loss of 13.50. Today the market witnessed a total turnover of Rs 1,318.80 crore.