May 12: The nine-day long bull run came to a grinding halt on stock exchanges across the country as stocks encountered profit-taking in highly volatile trading. With domestic institutions and local operators pressing sales, Sensex plummeted by 189 points from the opening level but recovered later to close with a loss of 23.60 points.Marketmen felt the downward technical correction on Wednesday was in the right direction. ``The market was overdue for a correction after a huge gain of 645 points in the Sensex during the last 9 consecutive trading sessions. With this correction, the market is likely to set a target of 4100 level of Sensex,'' said a senior analyst at a leading brokerage house.Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were buyers in select counters like ACC, HLL and MTNL, but they were persistent sellers in pharma shares which bore the brunt of today's selling besides some software scrips. HLL and MTNL posted smart gains and partly cushioned the fall in the Sensex.The market started of on astrong note with Sensex opening at 3941.20 and rallied further on speculative buying to the day's best level of 3983.58. Later, heavy selling pressure by local institutions wiped out initial gains and the Sensex fell below the 3800 level to 3794.65 before recovering on short covering to close at 3876.89, registering a net loss of 23.60 points from the previous day's close of 3900.49.The S&P CNX Nifty Index declined by 5.10 points to 1110.90 points as against the previous close of 1116.00 points at the National Stock Exchange (NSE).According to marketmen, the drop in industrial production also partially affected the market sentiment on the bourses, while some of the analysts opined that the speculators who have been away from the market for a long period are likely to take a chance to enter the market at this stage. The institutional investors made purchases in BPL, Britannia, Container Corporation, Hero Honda, Hind Lever, Kesoram, Mahindra & Mahindra, Telco, VSNL, Ballarpur Industries and GermanRemedies.``The bull rampage took a respite as industrials reversed direction and sought lower levels owing to widespread unwinding of positions. Now that stock have already encountered correction, Sensex is likely to rise further and cross the 4,000 level. FIIs are still buying stocks from the Indian market. The trend is bullish,'' said a broker."As long as FII inflows are maintained, we can be sure of the rally. The undertone of the market is also bullish and certain cyclical industries are also showing signs of moving out of the recessionary phase. This could add fuel to the rally," said a fund manager, adding, ``Sensex is now headed towards the 4,020 level where it should face another major resistance.''
