Markets end sharply lower on profit booking; cap goods drag

21 May 2009

It was another profit booking day for the Indian equities as huge sell-off was seen in the capital goods, financials and technology stocks. Negative global cues also weighed on our markets. Huge unwinding of positions was seen in today's trade. The broader indices also slipped from day's high on the back of profit booking.

Among the frontliners, L&T, SBI, ICICI Bank, BHEL, SAIL, HDFC, Wipro, TCS, Maruti and DLF plunged 3-9%. Reliance Industries and Infosys Technologies fell over 1.7% each. The sell-off in these stocks pushed the Nifty below the 4200 level during the day and forced the Sensex to close below the 14,000 mark. But the Nifty did not see much pressure compared to the Sensex, as ONGC has more weightage, which shot up 8.41% post the chairman's comments.

News reports yesterday said the Oil Ministry is now seriously considering a free pricing regime for oil instead of the existing subsidy regime. RS Sharma, chairman of Oil and Gas Corporation (ONGC), in an interview to CNBC-TV18, said that price deregulation may now come through after the UPA, sans Left, came to power. ''There are very positive signals. Already we find that discussions have begun in the right earnest," he said.

Shares of oil marketing companies also bucked the trend, HPCL and IOC surged over 14.5%. BPCL gained 10.22%.

The 30-share BSE Sensex touched an intraday low of 13,704.43, before closing at 13,736.54, down 2.31% or 324.12 points and the 50-share NSE Nifty shed 59.40 points or 1.39%, to settle at 4,210.90, after hitting day's low of 4199.20.

The broader indices slipped from day's high, as they seen some profit booking at higher levels, after sharp run-up in the last three days. The BSE Midcap Index closed flat at 4,673.87, after slipping 3.2% from day's high of 4,828.73 while the Smallcap Index rose 2.58% or 134.35 points, to 5,342.53, after dropping 3.6% from day's high of 5,540.76.