Stocks lose earlier gains

Brokers said the local operators pressed fresh sales in several scrips to square up their positions ahead of book-closure badla for dematerialised trading. Mutual funds and FIs were reportedly net sellers in refinery shares like BPCL, HPCL, Cochin Refineries, MTNL and others. Dealers said FIIs had once again diverted their attention to the softwaresector which remained isolated for the last couple of weeks. Out of 149 traded specified scrips, 103 declined while 43 advanced and three held unchanged.

The total volume of business was high at Rs 1957.31 as compared to Rs 1818.27 crore previously. Pentafour Software was the most active scrip with a turnover of Rs 296.28 crore and the scrip soared by Rs 83.50 to Rs 1181 on fresh buying. SBI gained by Rs 3.65 to Rs 273.55, Satyam Computers by Rs 115 to Rs 1553 and Hindustan Lever by Rs 18.90 to Rs 2225.90. Reliance, however, declined by Rs 7.05 to Rs 176.55, MTNL by Rs 8.20 to Rs 201.10, ITC by Rs 16 to Rs 1069, Telco by Rs 5.40 and Tisco by Rs 3 to Rs 123 on selling pressure.