Sensex ends 17 pts lower, drops for 5th day

The benchmark Sensex today pared early gains to end about 17 points lower weighed down by losses in Infosys and ICICI Bank shares, extending the string of declines to the fifth straight session.
The 30-share index had risen to a day's high of 25,095.76 in early trade after government data showed that the Wholesale Price Index inflation dipped to 5.43 per cent in June. Factory output grew at 19-month high of 4.7 per cent in May.
However, profit booking in consumer durables, IT, realty, healthcare and FMCG saw the BSE Sensex dip below 25,000 mark to touch the day's low of 24,892.00 points. The barometer closed with a loss of 17.37 points, or 0.07 per cent, at 25,006.98. The gauge has lost over 1,093 points in 5 sessions.

Brokers said sentiment was also dampened on reports of foreign institutional investors turning sellers. They offloaded shares worth Rs 723.48 crore shares on Friday, after remaining major buyers in six straight sessions, that had helped indices scale new highs in the run-up to Budget.
Stocks of Reliance Industries fell 0.53 per cent to Rs 961.85 after the government slapped an additional penalty of USD 579 million on the company for producing less than targeted natural gas from its KG-D6 block.
Infosys led the fall in IT stocks on profit-taking after gaining 1 per cent in the previous session. The stock ended 2.97 per cent lower at Rs 3,227.

Losses in shares of HUL (down 2.64 per cent), ICICI Bank (down 0.83 per cent) and HDFC (down 0.71 per cent) also dragged down the Sensex lower.

The broad-based Nifty of the National Stock Exchange lost 5.45 points, or 0.07 per cent, to settle at 7,454.15. Intra-day, the Nifty shuttled between 7,478.45 and 7,422.15.
A better trend on the other Asian markets and higher opening in Europe failed to lift Indian shares.
Sectorwise, the BSE Consumer durables index suffered the most by losing 2.24 per cent, followed by IT index (down 1.27 per cent), Realty index (down 0.78 per cent) and Healthcare index (down 0.53 per cent).