Economy stocks suffer setback on profit booking

MUMBAI, MARCH 29. Equities generally lost their early gains and some even registered substantial falls pushing the Sensex down by about 54 points on the Bombay Stock Exchange here today in the wake of selling pressure from speculators as well as profit booking by foreign institutional investors.

The FIIs were also selective buyers and reportedly made fresh purchases in scrips such as Wipro, McDowell, Infosys Technologies and select Indian stocks.

The BSE sensitive index opened firm at 5233.76 but later came under pressure due to selling pressure and dipped to the day's low of 5080.45 before closing at 5102.46 against yesterday's close of 5156.12, netting a loss of 53.66 points or 1.04 per cent. The BSE-100 index, however, firmed up further by 27.52 points to 3071.52 from 3044.00.

Pointing to the last day of the current account tomorrow on the Calcutta Stock Exchange, dealers said operators preferred to lighten their commitments in line with squaring up by Calcutta players with no positive factor in sight.

Unlike lacklustre activity that was attributed to the approaching end of the current fiscal, shares of ICICI Bank met with sizable interest as the bank's ADS which represents two underlying shares, was listed at $11 on the New York Stock Exchange and reportedly traded with 27 per cent premium over the issue price yesterday.

Operators and financial institutions booked profits in a bid to square up their portfolios at the end of current fiscal year, dealers added.

Besides heavyweights such as Hindustan Lever and NIIT, economy stocks and few others suffered a sharp setback due to profit taking.

- PTI

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Section  : Business
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