Stock prices drifted lower on the major Indian bourses today as investors chose to book profits after recent strong gains. Save for a few minutes at the start when it opened slightly up, the Sensex was down in the red right through the session today as several blue chips languished in the red on sustained selling pressure.

There were a couple of sharp rallies, once around mid morning and the other, a much sharper one, a little past mid afternoon, but both of them proved quite short-lived as participants stayed wary of holding positions at higher levels.


Asian markets, after trading firm, ended on a mixed note today. A firm trend on the European bourses did its bit to arrest the slide at the Indian ring.

Information technology stocks, which were among the top gainers in the previous session, saw a sell-off today due to profit taking. Power, PSU and bank stocks too drifted lower on profit taking. Realty stocks rebounded after an early fall but found the going tough at higher levels and eventually ended off their intra-day highs.

Oil and FMCG stocks ended on a dull note. Select consumer durables, pharma and auto stocks had some bright moments today. Metals stocks outperformed. Amid choppy trades, some midcap and smallcap stocks posted impressive gains.

The Sensex, which opened marginally higher at 15,218.83 and edged up a bit in early trade, plunged below the psychological 15,000 mark to 14,955.88 a little past noon, but recovered to close at 15,062.49, trimming down its loss a bit to 128.52 points or 0.85%. The Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange closed at 4469.10 with a loss of 33.15 points or 0.74%. In intra-day trades, the Nifty touched a high of 4524 and a low of 4436.60.

Among Sensex stocks, Tata Steel moved up by 5.3%. Maruti Suzuki gained 2.65%. Hindustan Unilever and Jaiprakash Associates firmed up by over 1%. Grasim Industries, Sun Pharmaceuticals and Larsen & Toubro gained nearly a per cent each. HDFC ended 0.6% up while Hinalco edged up marginally.

Tata Consultancy Services ended lower by 4.5% on profit taking. BHEL, Mahindra & Mahindra, ITC, AC, NTPC, Tata Power, Sterlite Industries and DLF lost 2% - 3%.

ICICI Bank, Infosys Technologies, ONGC and Bharti Airtel also ended with sharp losses. Reliance Industries, State Bank of India and Reliance Infrastructure posted modest losses.

GAIL India, Suzlon Energy, Punjab National Bank, Tata Communications, HCL Technologies, Reliance Capital, Power Grid Corporation and BPCL were among the prominent losers in the Nifty index. Jindal Steel, SAIL and Idea Cellular closed on a firm note.

Opto Circuit, Gujarat NRE Coke, Hindustan Copper, Jai Corp, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Kotak Bank, India Infoline, Godrej Industries and Educomp Solutions were among the prominent losers today.

Glenmark Pharma, Madras Cements, Mangalore Refineries & Petrochemicals, Voltas, Bhushan Steel, Godrej Consumer Products, Indian Hotels, Asian Paints, Punj Lloyd, Cummins India, United Spirits and Ispat Industries rallied sharply.

The market breadth was marginally negative at close. Out of 2718 stocks traded on BSE, 1343 stocks closed weak. 1289 stocks advanced and 86 stocks ended flat.