Sensex falls by 50 points; snaps six-day rally

Weak global cues today cut short the six-day winning streak of benchmark Sensex, which lost by over 50 points on profit-booking by investors at high levels.

The 30-share index on the Bombay Stock Exchange was trapped in a narrow range of 16,252.18 and 16,119.95 in lacklustre trading before ending the day at 16,214.19, a fall of 50.11 points or 0.31% over its previous close.

The broader 50-share Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also fell by 20.95 points to 4,808.60.

Slew of factors such as revival of monsoon, promising figures of industrial output, sustained buying by foreign funds and strong world markets had pushed up the Sensex by 865.67 points or 5.62% in the last six days to trade above the 16,000-level after more than 15 months.

Brokers said the market had been getting resistance after it touched the crucial 16,000-level last week. They added that investors preferred to book profits at existing high levels as global markets were under selling pressure.

In Asia, barring China, other indices ended in losses in the range of 1.0% and 2.3%. European markets also were trading down between 0.9 and 1.3 per cent while US stocks index futures too indicated subdued opening today.

Among the Sensex pack, metal stocks Sterlite Industries and Hindalco lost 3.55% and 2.46% respectively. Tata Steel, however, firmed up by 2.12%, and Tata Motors 1.97%. 

Marketmen said consumer durable and realty counters attracted profit-booking while some of the auto and PSU stocks were in keen demand.

The BSE consumer durable index declined by 1.06% and the realty index 0.79%.

The auto index was up 1.04% and PSU 0.93%. Besides Sterlite and Hindalco, Grasim also gained 2.01 %, REL Com 1.83% DLF 1.67%.

Among the key gainers, SBI was up by 1.95%, Hind Unilever 1.62% and M&M by 1.44%.

Despite the Sensex closing in the negative terrain, the total market breadth was positive with 1,474 stocks gaining against 1,308 that ended with losses on the BSE, reflecting buying in second line stocks.

The trading volume dropped further to Rs 5,125.14 crore from Rs 5,710.05 crore on last Friday. Tata Steel was the top traded share with the highest turnover of Rs 361.29 crore.