Monday, February 21 2005 17:04 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The market today (Feb 21, 2005) shed 50 points in lacklustre activity with operators preferring to book profits at every rise ahead of the budget and the expiry of futures contract despite sustained FII inflows.

The BSE Benchmark 30-share Index opened steady at 6585.88 and rose past 6600-mark to the high of 6602.53 during morning trading. However, it later turned weak and dropped to the day's low of 6521.07 as higher levels attracted profit selling before ending the day at 6534.68 against last Friday's close of 6584.32, a net fall of 49.64 points or 0.75 per cent.

Taking a cautious stance, operators and retail investors were engaged in hedging their outstanding positions in the run-up to the budget. They also trimmed their holdings ahead of the expiry of February contract on Thursday (Feb 24).

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), which pumped in a hefty Rs 2054.60 crore in the first four days of last week, were believed to have slowed down activity making selective purchases in a few blue chip counters.

Brokers said investors seemed to be looking forward to presentation of the budget for future direction despite some positive factors like strong foreign fund inflows in February and good corporate performances.

Blue chip counters like Infosys Technologies, Tata Steel, Wipro, Satyam Computers, REL, HLL, HDFC Bank, BHEL, Dr Reddy's Bajaj Auto, ICICI Bank, ITC, HDFC, Cipla, Bharti Tele-Venture and Bajaj Auto registered marked losses.

However, ONGC, Hero Honda, GACL, Maruti Udyog and SBI showed moderate gains on selective buying support from institutional investors.