Friday, September 30 2005 18:18 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: Despite a 8.1 per cent GDP growth in April-June quarter, the Sensex fell back by 16 points in highly volatile trade today (Sept 30, 2005) while many small-cap stocks hit lower circuit filter due to heavy selling pressure from investors.

The market, which had reached dizzy heights gaining by 428 points or 5.21 per cent in the last five days, is believed to be in a mode of consolidation before any announcement of second quarter corporate earnings trigger any fresh bull run.

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Benchmark 30-share Index (Sensex) witnessed erratic movements in a range of 8683.57 and 8527.38 on alternate bouts of buying and selling.

The Sensex later ended the day at 8634.48 as against yesterday's close of 8650.17, a net fall of 15.69 points or 0.18 per cent.

Small cap counters bore the brunt of selling and a number of shares from the segment stuck in the five per cent lower circuit filter.

The market totally discounted news that the economy grew by 8.1 per cent during first quarter of this fiscal backed by a robust growth in industry and services sectors.

Domestic mutual funds, which reported net purchases of Rs 566 crore in first three days of the week, seemed to be heavy sellers in index-based counters, brokers said adding that investors including day traders booked profits in small-cap stocks at the last day of week.

Investors anticipated flow of encouraging earnings from October 10 onwards before which the market is expected to undergo a necessary correction for its good health, brokers added.

Heavyweights like Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), ONGC, Larsen and Turbo (L&T), Maruti Udyog, Infosys Tech, HDFC Bank, NTPC and Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL) recorded substantial losses.

However, HDFC, ICICI Bank, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Ltd, Tata Steel, Bajaj Auto, Satyam Computers, Dr Reddy's Lab and Tata Power showed handsome gains.

The BSE Small-Cap Index dropped sharply by 108.62 points or 1.87 per cent to 5697.69 from last close of 5806.31.

The broad-based BSE-100 Index showed small variation at 4566.63 at close from previous close of 4566.99.

The BSE-200 Index and the Dollex-200 were quoted steady at 1098.02 and 415.57 at close compared to previous close of 1098.23 and 415.65 respectively. The BSE-500 Index eased by 4.00 points to 3521.83 from yesterday's close of 3525.83 and the Dollex-30 ended slightly lower at 1611.48 from 1614.41.

The total volume of business fell sharply to Rs 3669.80 crore from Rs 4258.20 crore yesterday(Sept 30, 2005) . Reliance Capital was the top traded share with the highest turnover of Rs 282.40 crore followed by RIL (233.86 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 197.76 crore), Satyam Computer (Rs 175.85 cr) and SBI (Rs 112.31 cr).

RIL dipped by 14.70 to 793.50, ONGC by 12.10 to 1060.90, L&T by 31.40 to 1512.65, HDFC Bank by 4.45 to 687.55, HLL by 2.60 to 181.15, Infosys Tech by 10.60 to 2517, Maruti by 5.80 to 558.30, Ranbaxy by 4.80 to 491.25, NTPC by 1.25 to 106, SBI by 1.60 to 938.60, Tata Motors by 1.40 to 534.45 and Wipro by 2.35 to 371.80.

However, HDFC rose by 20.35 to 1039.65, Bajaj Auto by 28.55 to 1692.10, Bharti Tele by 2.35 to 348.50, Dr Reddy by 14.45 to 852.55, ICICI Bank by 4.95 to 600.35, REL by 21.65 to 582.50, Satyam Computer by 8.50 to 560.05, Tata Power by 16 to 483.15 and TCS by 9.65 to 1481.25.