Friday, March 11 2005 17:38 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The stocks market reacted negatively after early signs of buoyancy and ended today (Mar 11, 2005) with a fall of 54 points in lacklustre activity on profit-taking by operators despite sustained FII inflows.

After touching the intra-day high of 6948.54 during early trade, the BSE Benchmark 30-share Index later turned weak and gradually moved downwards to the day's low of 6838.95 before ending the day at 6853.73 as against yesterday's close of 6907.65, a net fall of 53.92 points or 0.78 per cent.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) and domestic financial institutions, however, were believed to be buyers in select blue chip stocks, particularly steel counters and in turn, mitigated the negative impact on the market.

FIIs reported hefty net investments of Rs 1753.30 crore in equities in the first three trading sessions of the week.

Discounting heavy FII activity, brokers said the massive net purchases of Rs 793.20 crore on Wednesday include FIIs investments in JET Airways IPO.

Operators remained extremely cautious and booked profits in some heavy-weighted stocks even as the bourses warned investors and market players, directing them to be cautious in view of increased market activity and volatility.

Meanwhile, led by a strong performance from manufacturing sector, industrial growth shot up to eight per cent during January 2005.

The market is expected to witness downward pressure in the medium-term as it is driven by liquidity rather than fundamentals, market players said.

Steel shares were in keen demand prompted by steel price hike to be effected from April 2005.