Weekly Report: Sensex down on profit booking
Mumbai: A broad based correction saw the markets closing on a weak note for the week ending 10 December 2004, with investors in the mood to book profits. While the benchmark BSE index Sensex, which hit a new all-time high of 6386.29 on Monday, ended the week with a loss of 1.41% or 89.22 points as it plunged to 6233.54, the broader 50 stock Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange closed with a loss of 1.36% or 27.20 points at 1969.

The Ambani brothers decide that the 'ownership issue' wasn't settled after all, and inspired leaks in the media dragged down the prices of Reliance Industries (down 8.1%) and Reliance Energy (down 13%) sharply, affecting market sentiment accordingly. The other three Reliance group stocks, Reliance Capital, Reliance Industrial Infrastructure and IPCL felt the effects and took a dip under sustained selling pressure.

The inflow of funds from foreign institutional investors, which has driven the market up this far, appears to be slowing down a bit due to ensuing Christmas vacation. Compared to an inflow of over Rs3,100 crore in the previous week, FIIs recorded net purchases of Rs1377.6 crore (US dollar 303.8 million) in equities for the trading week ended December 10 while mutual funds (MFs) were net sellers at Rs327.45 crore. Overseas funds were net buyers in equities on all five trading days of the week.

While the foreign funds were net purchasers at Rs1323.3 crore (USD 286.6 million) in the debt market for the period under review, according to the data available with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) the mutual funds were also net purchasers in the debt market at Rs1355.14 crore.

Bank stocks held sway for a major part of the week after the passage of the Enforcement of Security Interest and Recovery of Debt Laws (Amendment) Bill on Tuesday, before some of them shed gains due to profit taking. Cement stocks spurted on strong shipment figures and expectations of a firm trend in product prices.

PSU power equipment maker BHEL attracted strong buying enquiries on surging order book. Power utility player Tata Power too generated good support.

Media major Zee Telefilms was back in the reckoning as well. Telecom player Bharti Tele-Ventures bounced back strongly into the positive territory ending the week with a modest gain. Automobile stocks had a rather sluggish run during the week.

Software majors closed in the negative zone as they encountered stiff resistance at higher levels.

ONGC played a significant part as well in dragging the indices down sharply last week. and closed significantly weak.
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ADR - Indian companies as of December 10
US Index Report Date Dec 10 2004

DJIA	Dow Jones Industrial Average	10543.22	- 9.60
NASDAQ	Nasdaq Composite	2128.07	- 0.94

Indian ADRs On NASDAQ and NYSE Date Dec 10 2004

IBN	ICICI Bank Ltd	$ 19	+ 0.04
INFY	Infosys Technologies Ltd	$ 66.68	+ 0.01
REDF	Rediff.com India Ltd	$ 8.79	- 0.05
SIFY	Sify Ltd	$ 6.15	+ 0.08
VSL	Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd	$ 9.38	+ 0.05
WIT	Wipro Ltd	$ 23.30	+ 0.11
RDY	Dr.Reddys Laboratories Ltd	$ 18.76	- 0.19
SAY	Satyam Computer Services Ltd	$ 24.30	- 0.20
HDB	HDFC Bank	$ 38.55	- 0.05
MTE	Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd	$ 7.23	- 0.45

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