Business

Focus shifts to mid-cap stocks

MUMBAI: The Sensex closed 87 points down on Friday, but mid-cap and small-cap shares registered gains for the second consecutive day. In volatile trade, it dropped to a low of 19472.51 but showed resilience and recovered to 19838.03 before ending at 19698.36, a net fall of 86.53 points against Thursday’s close of 19784.89.

The S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also closed 5.25 points lower at 5906.85 against 5912.10.

Stocks of companies in capital goods and banking sectors suffered major falls in the market. BHEL fell by Rs. 36.60 to Rs. 2,786.55, ICICI Bank by Rs. 29.15 to Rs. 1,219.45 and HDFC Bank by Rs. 12.05 to Rs. 1,687.15.

Investors shifted attention to mid-cap and small-cap shares, which provide better investment opportunities, market players said. It is a good sign that investors are now making purchases in these segments as prices of front-line stocks looked overextended, they said.

Asian and European indices remained weak in line with a fresh slide in the U.S. stocks on Thursday due to more financial and economic uncertainty.

The rupee ended marginally lower at 39.32/33 a dollar on Friday against the close of 39.31 on Thursday,

It touched a low of 39.40 a dollar during early trade due to weakness in global equity markets on fears of more financial and economic uncertainty.

In active trade at the interbank foreign exchange market, the Indian unit moved in a range of 39.31 and 39.40 after resuming weak at 39.3350/3450 a dollar. — PTI

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu