Thursday, February 10 2005 17:32 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The Sensex today (Feb 10, 2005) turned weak and dropped by 15.70 points to close at 6577.83 at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) following profit booking at higher levels and key blue chip counters displayed fresh losses in mostly low key activity in the run-up to the budget.

Mirroring the market trend, the BSE benchmark 30-share sensitive index resumed higher at 6600.85 and rose to the day's high of 6608.96.

However, profit-taking drove the index to a low of 6533.97 even as a late pull-back rally managed to limit losses to post a closing quote of 6577.83, dealers said.

The global rating agency Moody's Investor Services and India Inc have cautioned the Government that 10 per cent economic growth rate would not be attained without reining in the fiscal deficit, dealers said.

Foreign Insitutional Investors (FIIs) who were keen buyers in midcap shares yesterday (Feb 9, 2005), generally kept their portfolios restricted. Local operators and investors who were also active buyers yesterday, turned heavy sellers who took profit at higher levels and a large number of blue chip shares suffered sharply bringing down the index notably, they said.

Some of the major gainers of the day were RIL, Tata Power, ACC, ICICI Bank, BHEL, HPCL, Cipla, Hero Honda, ITC, Ranbaxy and Dr Reddy on increased buying.

However, HDFC, Hidalco, Maruti, SBI, Wipro, Bharti, HLL, Bajaj Auto, HDFC Bank, OGC, REL, Satyam, Tata Steel and ZEE Tele met with selling pressure and declined.