Indices correct on profit booking

30 May 2005

Markets opened in the positive, trying to sustain the rally from last week. Selling emerged within half an hour and indices slipped into the negative.

From there on it was a slow drift down for rest of the day. The overall weakness did not turn into a sell off because of stellar performance from select heavyweights like TCS and HLL.

Losses on the Nifty were much lower than those on the Sensex because of the surge in TCS and positive trend in ONGC. TCS, which is not represented on the Sensex, closed with gains of close to 4 per cent. Market volumes were low even by the lower trend of recent weeks.

Sensex closed at 6664, down 44 points and the Nifty at 2072, down 4 points. Nifty June futures discount to the spot index widened marginally to 29 points from Friday's 28 points.

Among Nifty stocks, HLL, Tata Chemicals and TCS were the major percentage gainers while Hindalco, L&T, GAIL were the major losers.

Utility vehicles and tractors manufacturer M&M has reported a 47 per cent jump in profits for the full year ended March 2005. Total revenues rose by over 33 per cent. Profit growth for the fourth quarter was more subdued at around 4 per cent. M&M's joint venture in China for manufacturing tractors will start production shortly.