Fuel Price Hike Fears Deflate Auto Scrips

Stocks lost ground on Thursday on fresh selling pressure amid rising tension at the Indo-Pak border. The BSE sensitive index (Sensex) settled 24.35 points lower at 3,135.89.

On the NSE, the S&P CNX Nifty index lost 9.50 points to end at 1,032.15. Losers outnumbered the gainers amid heavy trades.

A Mumbai-based broker said, "The market was distracted by reports that heightened the prospects of a war with Pakistan, and several funds resorted to selling."

FMCG giant Hindustan Lever was one of the biggest losers on the market. The stock slipped 2.49 per cent to Rs 187.65 after a prominent broking house offloaded the stock.

Reliance Industries (down 1.58 per cent to Rs 260.95) and Reliance Petroleum (down 1.49 per cent to Rs 23.15) also remained weak on concerns that their plants may be hit in the event of a war with Pakistan.

However, ITC (up 2.46 per cent to Rs 608.60) bucked the weak trend on defensive buying. Meanwhile, auto stocks remained weak on concerns of a hike of petrol and diesel prices. Key stocks such as Bajaj Auto (down 2.18 per cent to Rs 474.60) and Tata Engineering (down 2.34 per cent to Rs 120.85) ended lower.

Among other bluechip stocks, Tata Steel (up 0.61 per cent to Rs 107.05) ended flat, coming off from the day's high of Rs 111.50.

Steel Authority of India (up 11.92 per cent to Rs 8.45) improved on hopes of a recovery in the steel sector.

In the new economy segment, Zee Telefilms (down 3.72 per cent to Rs 133.20) lost ground, coming off from the day's high of Rs 142.

Satyam Computer (down 1.71 per cent to Rs 224.65) ended lower on selling pressure. But HCL Technologies (up 0.50 per cent to Rs 221.85) and Infosys Technologies (up 0.43 per cent to Rs 3,553.05) ended with modest gains on selective buying.

Frontline technology stocks such as NIIT (down 5.60 per cent to Rs 246.85), SSI (down 4.28 per cent to Rs 143.15), Digital GlobalSoft (down 2.42 per cent to Rs 633.15), Mascot Systems (down 3.27 per cent to Rs 220.50) and Wipro (down 0.70 per cent to Rs 1,527.20) ended lower.