Sensex crosses 5,600, falls back

MUMBAI, JANUARY 13: Stock markets remained volatile once again. Share prices declined sharply on the Bombay Stock Exchange BSE on sellin...

MUMBAI, JANUARY 13: Stock markets remained volatile once again. Share prices declined sharply on the Bombay Stock Exchange BSE on selling pressure and the benchmark Sensex crashed by nearly 207 points from its initial high of 5652.22 and closed with a loss 46 points. After a firm spell, pivotals moved into the negative territory after the mid-session as operators booked profit at higher levels.

However, index-heavy weight Hindustan Lever held firm ground, helping contain the losses. The overnight drop in the Nasdaq composite index also led to a fall in many software shares. Infosys Technologies crashed by Rs 974.95 to Rs 12026.05 on selling.

The 30-share BSE sensitive index Sensex started sharply up at 5568.64 and zoomed to the day8217;s high of 5652.22 in the early stages. However, it tumbled by over 221 points to the low of 5430.81 before closing at 5444.82 with a net loss of 46.38 points compared to yesterday8217;s close of 5491.20. The BSE-100 index dropped by 38.42 points to 2745.23 from the previous close of 2783.65.

Brokers said the session opened sharply higher due to strong gains in index-heavy weight Hindustan Lever, which moved up on talk of a share split and domestic fund buying. However, shares turned weak on all-round selling pressure after the company informed the exchange that there was no proposal of bonus issue, and the share split would be considered at an appropriate stage. The share ended Rs 132.05 up at Rs 2,778, off a high of Rs 2,857.60.

Operators were wary about taking long-term positions as the market has been showing an unstable pattern in recent days. The activity of foreign funds has also been mixed, giving no indication of their strategy. The profit-taking was also partly attributed to squaring up of positions by operators ahead of tomorrow8217;s end account. FIIs reportedly made purchases in Sensex-scrips like Hindustan Lever and NIIT, while selling off shares of some cyclicals that they had accumulated earlier this week.

Of the 140 specified shares, 99 registered substantial losses while 40 showed impressive gains and one held steady. Satyam Computer was the most active scrip with a turnover of Rs 439.19 crore of the total volume of business of Rs 3136.90 crore. Satyam Computer spurted by Rs 77 to Rs 2459, Reliance by Rs 4.70 to Rs 308.50, HFCL by Rs 8 to Rs 811, ICICI by Rs 8.55 to 130, Mahindra and Mahindra by Rs 6.70 to Rs 498 and NIIT by Rs 151.75 to Rs 2741.75. However, Zee Telefilms, Lamp;T, BHEL, GACL, ITC, MTNL, TELCO and TISCO remained subdued.