Market falls FII stop buying

An extremely volatile market ended lower for third straight day on Wednesday, on concerns of foreign capital inflows drying up.

Indices opened with a gap-up led by oil majors Reliance Industries and ONGC but soon lost steam. Bulls staged a comeback mid-session, lifting the market and indices up. But the recovery was short-lived as wary investors booked profits at every rise.

Bombay Stock Exchange's benchmark Sensex ended 110 points or 0.57 per cent lower at 19,289.83. The 30-index touched a high of 19,678.50 and low of 19,249 intraday.

National Stock Exchange's 50-stock Nifty closed down 4.15 points or 0.07 per cent at 5782.35.

"Profit booking seems to be taking place. Market had gone up on concerted buying by FIIs. As they are not participating in buying, there is nervousness. Volatility is not going to reduce tomorrow either," said Arun Kejriwal, director, Kejriwal Investment Services.

Foreign institutional investors pulled out around Rs 1,419 crore from the Indian market over Friday and Monday, while they bought shares worth Rs 7.62 crore on Tuesday.

Kejriwal advises investors to look at stock specific movement rather than Sensex movement.

The Sensex got support from heavyweight Reliance Industries which rose over 4 per cent to Rs 2762.65 on reports of gas find in one of its blocks in Krishna-Godavari offshore basin.

Some late buying in State Bank of India lent further support to the index. SBI closed up 2.66 per cent at Rs 2267.45.

Amongst the sectoral indices, BSE Oil & Gas Index closed 2.63 per cent higher at 11,688.18 , BSE Metal Index closed up 0.94 per cent at 17,367.72.

BSE IT was the worst hit on account of rupee appreciation. The currency touched a peak of 39.16 early in the day but eased later to 39.28. BSE IT Index fell 4.34 per cent to 4,343.42.

IT bellwether Infosys Technologies was the biggest loser. It closed down Rs 106.90 or 5.78 per cent at Rs 1,743.

BSE Midcap and Smallcap closed lower 0.37 per cent and 1.10 per cent, respectively.

Among stocks, Reliance Natural Resources and Reliance Petroleum managed to trim losses to 7.02 per cent and 0.73 per cent respectively. RNRL had plunged 16.89 per cent to Rs 135 and Reliance Petroleum fell 6.69 per cent to Rs 205.60 in early trade.

Sugar stocks were in focus, led by Bajaj Hindustan, Balrampur Chini and Dhampur, on reports that Sri Lanka may increase purchases of the commodity next year having cut import tax on the commodity to check inflation and after a drought and pest attacks cut sugarcane output this year.

GAIL India advanced on reports it is looking at acquiring stake in a Nigerian LNG plant and has expressed interest in setting up a gas-based petrochemical plant. The stock closed 6.51 per cent up at Rs 457.30.

Sterlite Industries climbed up on plans to enter coal based thermal power projects through subsidiary Sterlite Energy. The share closed up 6.58 per cent at Rs 1,056.95.