Markets close in red, but post weekly gains on high profit-booking

Markets close in red, but post weekly gains on high profit-booking
The Financial Express – Corporates & Markets, June 13, 2009, P VIII.

fe Bureau, Mumbai

Indian equity indices closed the day below the dotted line following weak cues from the European market and profit-booking at higher levels. However, markets continued its weekly gains.

The 30-share Sensex of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) lost 173.53 points or 1.13% to close the day at 15,237.94 points. The broader S&P CNX Nifty of National Stock Exchange (NSE) was down 54.30 points or 1.17% to end the day at 4,583.40 points.

Dealers in the market also added that the sentiment in the markets remained weak despite positive Index of Industrial Production (IIP) numbers for April, which stood at 1.4% as against negative 0.7% in March.

In the last one week, domestic markets had witnessed huge volatility as domestic institutional investors (DII), along with retail investors, continued to book profit in the market. On Monday, markets closed in the red, but on Tuesday and Wednesday market remained positive, after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that India can achieve a growth of 8 to 9% with a high savings rate.

However, on Thursday once again, markets closed the day marginally lower. In the last one week, Sensex gained over 130 points, while Nifty was marginally down by over 3 points.

Amitabh Chakraborty, president (equities) at Religare capital markets, said, “Till budget is declared we will witness huge profit-booking in the markets. However, next week we might see markets turning volatile and there are chances that Sensex might even touch 14,500 mark before the budget is declared on July 3. Apart from that, some buying was also seen from the FII, while some selling was seen by the DII.”

On Friday, domestic markets opened the day with positive gap and turned unstable during the trading session and finally closed the day in the red. An analyst from the leading broking house said, “There are some money waiting to get into the market, but they are waiting for the right time to invest in the markets. Apart from that, retail investors will be cautious ahead of budget.”

Foreign institutional investors (FII) continued their buying, as per the provisional figures provided by the BSE, FII were net buyers on Friday at Rs 469.35 crores, while DII were net sellers at Rs 250.71 crores.

The breath of the market remained negative as out of 2,774 stocks traded on BSE, 706 stocks advanced, 2,020 declined while 48 stocks remained unchanged. In Sensex only four stocks closed the day in the green, while remaining 26 stocks ended the day in the red.