Business
Sensex down 134 points; capital goods stocks decline
Mumbai, April 16
A benchmark index of the
Indian equities markets, the 30-scrip BSE Sensitive Index (Sensex)
closed Thursday's trade down 134 points or 0.46 percent, as capital
goods, healthcare and information technology (IT) stocks fell.
The
wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also ended in
the red. It was down 43.50 points or 0.50 percent at 8,706.70 points.
The
Sensex of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at
28,876.23 points, closed the day's trade at 28,666.04 points, down
133.65 points or 0.46 percent from the previous day's close at 28,799.69
points.
The Sensex touched a high of 28,876.23 points and a low of 28,497.70 points in the intra-day trade.
The S&P BSE midcap closed 77.74 points down. The S&P BSE smallcap was lower by 108.65 points.
"Market’s
curiosity seen yesterday has brought a broader impact today. Profit
booking continues," said Vinod Nair, head, fundamental research, Geojit
BNP Paribas Financial Services.
According to Nair, investors have considered taking profit bookings before the important fourth quarterly results.
"As per this performance and budget session which starts April 20, investors can consider volatility," Nair added.
Sanjeev
Zarbade, vice president, private client group research, Kotak
Securities said that although the global cues were not very weak, the
Sensex continued to remain under selling pressure.
"Capital
goods and technology stocks lost ground in today’s session. The upstream
oil and gas sector saw some buying activity in view of the bounceback
in crude prices," Zarbade said.
Sectors like capital goods,
healthcare, banks, information technology (IT), consumer durables and
fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) came under heavy selling pressure.
However, oil and gas index made gains during the day's trade session.
The
S&P BSE capital goods index plunged 277.05 points followed by
healthcare index which declined by 269.49 points, bank index decreased
by 110.43 points, IT index receded by 104.97 points, consumer durables
index was lower by 101.86 points and FMCG index was down 63.54 points.
However, the S&P BSE oil and gas index closed higher by 90.78 points.
Major
trigger for Friday will be Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) results
which is expected to be announced Thursday evening. Its quarterly
numbers are expected to impact markets tomorrow.
The major Sensex
gainers on Thursday were: ONGC, up 3.25 percent at Rs.327.50; Mahindra
and Mahindra, up 1.31 percent at Rs.1,225.40; Hindalco Industries, up
1.25 percent at Rs.137.25; HDFC, up 0.97 percent at Rs.1,303.90; and
NTPC, up 0.97 percent at Rs.156.20.
The losers were: Hero
MotoCorp, down 3.76 percent at Rs.2,428.85; Sun Pharma, down 2.60
percent at Rs.1,089.55; Cipla, down 2.14 percent at Rs.678.75; Larsen
and Toubro (L&T), down 2.00 percent at Rs.1,752.50; and DrReddy's
Lab, down 1.92 percent at Rs.3,681.45.