Techs Curtail Downslide

The 30-stock Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) sensitive index (Sensex) finished lower today, as fears of political instability encouraged traders to book profits in select old economy shares.

The sentiment was also affected by the Securities and Exchange Board of India's (Sebi) decision to enforce the 30-day notice period between dividend announcement and the record date. The Sensex ended with a modest loss of 26.66 points at 3,614.44.

Dealers said, loses in the market were limited due to bargain-hunting in front-line technology shares.

On the National Stock Exchange, the S&P CNX Nifty Index ended 5.90 points lower at 1172.60.

Shares of state-run companies led the decline after rallying sharply during the past two months. Engineering-major Bhel slipped 5.99 per cent to Rs 176.45. MTNL (down 4.38 per cent to Rs 140.95) and Hindustan Petroleum (down 2.01 per cent to Rs 319.35) also declined on selling pressure.

Cement stocks slipped on fears of lower off-takes during the current month on account of the recent riots in Gujarat.

Gujarat Ambuja Cements (down 4.70 per cent to Rs 217.75), ACC (down 1.60 per cent to Rs 159.85) and Grasim (down 0.59 per cent to Rs 303.45) ended lower.

Reliance Industries (down 1.99 per cent to Rs 307.30) and Reliance Petroleum (down 1.95 per cent to Rs 27.70) continued to remain under selling pressure.

Tata Engineering (down 3.78 per cent to Rs 125.95) and Hero Honda Motors (down 2.27 per cent to Rs 378.15) also lost ground on profit-booking.

Defensive pharma stocks remained firm. Ranbaxy (Rs 849.70), Cipla (Rs 1,025.25) and GlaxoSmithKline (Rs 344.85) ended in the positive zone on defensive buying.

However, foreign fund buying in bluechips technology limited losses in the market. Infosys Technologies (up 2.47 per cent at Rs 3,932.20) recovered from the day's low of Rs 3,785.05.

HCL Technologies (up 0.90 per cent to Rs 287) also improved after it announced the formation of a strategic alliance with US-based Zamba Solutions.

Frontline stocks such as Mascot Systems (up 8.30 per cent to Rs 260.85), NIIT (up 2.46 per cent to Rs 224.60), Wipro (up 1.91 per cent to Rs 1,802.25) and SSI (up 0.35 per cent to Rs 187.95) ended in positive zone on selective buying.