Sensex falls after nine days of gains on profit-booking

Mumbai: After nine days of gain, the 30-share bellwether BSE Sensex on Thursday fell 50 points because of profit-booking.

At 9.35am, the Sensex was trading lower by 0.19%, or 51.35 points, at 27,088.59 points, while the National Stock Exchange’s broader barometer 50-share Nifty was down 0.29%, or 23.55 points, at 8,091.05 points.

The gainers included Cipla Ltd, which advanced 2.1% to Rs.564.50 and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), which rose 0.9% to Rs.2,624.

Among the losers, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (Bhel) fell 2.8% to Rs.230.95 and Hindalco Industries Ltd fell 1.4% to Rs.172.75.

The BSE healthcare index was the top sectoral gainer, up 0.6%, followed by BSE FMCG, which was trading up 0.4%. The BSE realty index was the top sectoral loser, down 2.2%, followed by BSE consumer durables, which slipped 1%. The BSE capital goods, oil and gas and power indices were trading down 0.9% each. The BSE auto, Bankex and metal indices were trading down 0.5% each.

DLF Ltd was trading at Rs.174.40 on BSE, down 4.73% from its previous close, after the Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday ordered the cancellation of a 350-acre land allotment in Gurgaon authorized by the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government in 2009.

United Spirits Ltd was trading at Rs.2,374.05 on BSE, down 1% from its previous close, after the company reported a loss of Rs.5,380 crore for the March quarter, because of write-downs related to the sale of its Whyte and Mackay whisky business.

Marico Kaya Enterprises Ltd rose 3.3% to Rs.645 on BSE after the Reserve Bank of India on Wednesday said that foreign institutional investors can invest up to 40% in the company.

KSK Energy Ventures Ltd was trading at Rs.99.50 on BSE, up 6.5% from its previous close, after it said that the government of India gave it permission to issue warrants to its foreign promoters, entailing an investment of Rs.1,050 crore.

Bhushan Steel Ltd rose 5% to Rs.100.85 for the second consecutive day after 18 days of falling. In August, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested Neeraj Singal, the managing director of the company, in connection with an alleged Rs.50 lakh bribery scandal involving the chairman and managing director of Syndicate Bank Ltd, S.K. Jain. The stock fell 77% since 1 August.

Idea Cellular Ltd fell 3.2% to Rs.166.90 on BSE. Around 5.07 million equity shares of the company have changed hands in multiple block deals, Bloomberg reported. Details of buyers and sellers were not available.

Since the beginning of this year, the Sensex has gained 27.85%, while foreign institutional investors have bought $13.15 billion from local equity markets.

A monthly meeting of the European Central Bank (ECB) is scheduled for 4 September, and there are expectations that the ECB will announce quantitative easing in the coming months to strengthen growth in the euro zone, which may boost market sentiment.

Asian markets were trading mixed on Thursday. China’s Shanghai Composite gained 0.13%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 0.33%, while Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average slipped 0.2%.

Wall Street indices ended marginally higher on hopes of a ceasefire in Ukraine and encouraging service sector data out of China. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.1%, S&P 500 closed flat and Nasdaq Composite was down 0.6%.