Profit booking drags Sensex down (Roundup)

MUMBAI - A benchmark index for Indian equities Thursday closed 84 points lower on profit booking, although foreign funds pumped in over $500 million.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 19,476.93 points, closed at 19,417.49 points, 84.62 points or 0.43 percent down from its previous close at 19,502.11 points.

The Sensex touched an intra-day low of 19,383.46 points and a high of 19,636.66 points.

At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the broader 50-share S&P CNX Nifty shut shop 0.55 percent lower at 5,828.7 points.

According to data available with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), foreign institutional investors (FIIs) poured in $508.98 million into the equities markets Thursday.

The markets plunged intra-day following the Reserve Bank of India’s decision to raise key interest rates. In its fifth such hike this year, the RBI raised the repo rate by 25 basis points to 6 percent, while the reverse repurchase rate has been hiked to 5 percent from 4.5 percent.

Broader markets indices also closed in the red. The BSE midcap 0.97 percent down and the BSE smallcap index 0.41 percent lower.

The market breadth was negative with 1,081 scrips advancing, compared to 1,863 stocks declining and 143 remaining unchanged.

The RBI’s rate hike decision helped interest sensitive stocks like realty and banking which were among the top gainers. IT and telecom scrips saw selling.

The major gainers on the Sensex were DLF, up 2.66 percent at Rs.349.70; HDFC, up 1.39 percent at Rs.691.05; SBI, up 1.29 percent at Rs.3,100.05; and Maruti Suzuki, up 1.25 percent at Rs.1,386.75.

Among the losers were: Infosys, down 2.7 percent at Rs.2,967.80; RCom, down 2.41 percent at Rs.158.10; Bharti Airtel, down 2.37 percent at Rs.347.70, and Sterlite Industries, down 2.3 percent at Rs.169.70.

Other Asian markets ended in the red on news that Chinese banks might have to raise their capital adequacy ratio following a surge in lending, forcing a share sale by some.

The Japan’s Nikkei closed on a flat note at 9,509.5 points.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng ended 0.16 percent down at 21,691.45 points, while the Chinese Shanghai Composite index shed 1.89 percent to close at 2,602.47 points.

European bourses were trading on a sluggish note.

At closing bell here, the FTSE 100 was trading 0.19 percent lower at 5,544.84 points.

The German DAX was ruling 0.21 percent down at 6,248.7 points and the French CAC 40 slipped 0.41 percent to rule at 3,740.3 points.