Monday, October 10 2005 17:35 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The stock market ran out of steam after initial price rally and the Sensex today (Oct 10, 2005) ended eight points down in low volume and volatile trade on late selling pressure by operators and day traders.

Investors were extremely cautious ahead of the flow of Q2 corporate earnings scheduled to begin from Tuesday (Oct 11, 2005). IT majors Infosys Technologies and TCS Ltd will announce their quarterly results tomorrow.

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Benchmark 30-share Index opened firm at 8516.44 and later fluctuated erratically in a range of 8564.85 and 8465.90 before ending the day at 8483.86 against Friday's (Oct 7, 2005) close of 8491.56, a net fall of 7.70 points.

The volume of business fell sharply due to a slowdown in activity by institutional investors.

Operators and Day traders took opportunity of the initial price upsurge and booked profits in the latter part of the day, adopting cautious approach on fears of withdrawal by Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs), which reported net sales during last week, brokers said.

Investors also preferred to wait for Infosys results with some analysts showing bearish signals if corporate earnings fell short of market expectations, they added.

Domestic mutual funds, which had been heavy net buyers during September, also have slowed down net purchases.

Dr Reddy's Lab, however, scored smart gains on buying prompted by reports that the company has received an approval from the United States Food and Drugs Administration for multiple strengths of anti-diabetes drug flimepiride tables.

Infosys Tech, Bharti Tele-Venture, Hero Honda, Indian Tobacco Company (ITC), HDFC Bank and Satyam Computers also recorded marked gains.

The broad-based BSE-100 Index moved down further by 13.76 points to 4498.27 from previous close of 4512.03.

The BSE-200 Index and the Dollex-200 were quoted modestly down at 1082.92 and 404.07 at close compared to last weekend's close of 1086.48 and 408.14 respectively. The BSE-500 Index eased by 13.16 points to 3476.62 from last close of 3489.78 and the Dollex-30 ended lower at 1561.02 from 1573.01.

The volume of business fell sharply to Rs 2428.69 crore from Rs 3606.49 crore on Friday. State Bank of India (SBI) clocked the highest turnover of Rs 149.97 crore followed by Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) (Rs 130.12 crore), Satyam Computer (Rs 127.90 crore), Infosys Technologies (Rs 105.40 crore) and BHELSL (Rs 84.73 crore).

RIL fell by 5.45 to 783.50, SBI by 12.45 to 903.65, Tata Steel by 6.55 to 388.70, Oil and Natural Gas (ONGC) by 17.75 to 1028.80, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) by 19.10 to 1196, Grasim by 28.85 to 1286.55, Hindalco by 4.25 to 142.80, Maruti Udyog by 10.75 to 559.55, Tata Motors by 7.70 to 539, Tata Motor by 10.30 to 462.30, Ranbaxy by 25.45 to 500.10, NTPC by 1.80 to 105.70, L&T by 1.45 to 1497.75, HDFC by 6.05 to 989.65, GACL by 1.65 to 74.25, Cipla by 3.45 to 363.40 and ACC by 8.90 to 467.40.

However, Infosys Tech shot up by 53.05 to 2622.45, Satyam Computer by 9.90 to 592.95, Wipro by 6.10 to 394.10, TCS Ltd by 3.85 to 1449.30, Dr Reddy's Lab by 23.15 to 968.10, HDFC Bank by 7.60 to 688.50, ICICI Bank by 1.10 to 532.05, ITC Ltd by 2.45 to 128.80, Hero Honda by 13.05 to 744.80 and Bharti Tele-Venture by 6.55 to 349.85.