Date:28/02/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/02/28/stories/2008022850931800.htm

Business

Early gains not held on BSE

MUMBAI: The Bombay Stock Exchange sensitive index lost momentum after an initial rally and ended flat on Wednesday as a weak opening in the European market triggered heavy profit selling by investors after the mid-session.

Investors adopted a cautious approach before the Union Budget on February 29, which, they hope, would lift the markets. Foreign institutional investors however, were engaged in short-covering in Futures while the market-wide rollover into March series remained comparatively low, marketmen said.

After rising past the 18,000-level to an intra-day high of 18137.28, the Sensex came under pressure and ended the day at 17825.99, a gain of 19.80 points from Tuesday’s close of 17806.19. Initial rally was largely attributed to strong trend in Asian markets’ indices, which ended higher by about 1-3 per cent. IT shares were hit hard due to fresh sell-off triggered by rupee’s surge against dollar. However, key stocks such as BHEL spurted by 3.8 per cent, L&T by 3.20 per cent, M&M by 4.52 per cent and HDFC by 4.27 per cent. — PTI