Profit booking, low FII buying take toll; Sensex down 49 pts to 3231-mark

Our Markets Bureau

Mumbai, Nov 20: Profit-booking by speculators and select domestic funds in old economy and select defensive stocks snapped a three-day strong rally, pushing the market down by 95 points from the day’s high, as market players termed Tuesday’s losses as a logical and expected correction after over 200 points rose in the last three successive days.

The BSE 30 Sensex closed down 48.82 points at 3231.66 points, mainly led by defensive and old economy index heavyweight stocks like Hindustan Lever Ltd (HLL), ITC and Reliance Industries (RIL). The Sensex opened on a firm note at 3296.17 points in line with Monday’s strong finish and overnight gains on the US bourses.

In morning trades, it hit a intra-day high of 3326.72 points, but higher levels attracted profit-booking. This, coupled with mellowed buying interest by FIIs, pulled down the Sensex to the intra-day low of 3223.99 points in late afternoon trades.

The movement pattern on NSE was also in a similar patter, where the S&P CNX Nifty closed 17.95 points down at 1050.20, a sharp fall from the day’s high of 1082.40 points, after opening at 1067.30 points.

Prabhudas Lilladhar Securities technical analyst Hitesh Sheth said: “Its basically cooling of activities after strong gains, the correction is very healthy move for a fresh rally, despite today’s correction, the undertone is positive.”

“The immediate resistance level is at 3325 point and if this is breached comprehensively, we might see the Sensex climbing to 3425 points, and on the downward side there is strong support at 3125 to 3150 points,” he added.

The combined turnover on the BSE and NSE on Tuesday stood at Rs 4,510.99 crore. NSE’s 31 individual stock futures recorded a turnover of Rs 221.86 crore, with Satyam leading at Rs 47.19 crore, followed by Infosys at Rs 42.56 crore.

Among the key losers were, Reliance down Rs 14.70 at Rs 290.50, Larsen & Toubro down Rs 5.90 at Rs 197.15, ITC down Rs 6.10 at 688.35 and HLL down Rs 5.40 at Rs 214.95.

Monday’s loser Grasim, on Tuesday gained ground as analysts believe that the 10-per cent stake buy in L&T by Grasim will help the latter to put a immediate lid on multinational cement companies foothold in India and help increase its clout in domestic cement price and control.

Despite Tuesday’s weakness, software shares closed on a firm note, but off from the opening higher levels. Infosys closed up Rs 33.60 at Rs 3,610.65, Satyam Computers up Rs 3.35 at Rs 198.60 on sustained foreign fund buying.