Monday, January 2 2006 17:03 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: The Bombay Stock Exchange Benchmark 30-share Index (Sensex) today (Jan 2, 2006) surrendered early gains as shares met with heavy profit-selling and fell sharply to end with moderate loss of 7.79 points at 9,390.14.

The Index opened on a strong footing at 9,422.49 against last Friday's close of 9,397.93 and rallied to a day's high of 9,457.09. Later, as shares met with profit-selling at higher level and declined, the sensex also nosedived to a low of 9,366.09, before ending at 9,390.14, revealing a small loss of 7.79 points or 0.08 per cent over last close.

Operators and retail investors, who were making fresh commitments in early trade, turned net sellers, while institutional investors also kept their commitments limited, brokers said.

Meanwhile, describing the fresh fall as temporary, market analysts said the sentiment would remain very bullish and the market was likely to touch the 10,000 level before the presentation of the Union Budget in February end and added that the buying spree would continue in view of the robust growth in the country's economy as well as corporate earnings besides record FII inflows during the 2005.

Shares like Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), ONGC, Maruti, Reliance Engeries Limited (REL), Bajaj Auto, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), HDFC Bank, Hindalco, ICICI Bank and Ranbaxy found good support and closed better.

However, a large number of pivotals such as Infosys Tech, Larsen and Turbo (L&T), Hero Honda, Dr Reddy, Grasim, Tata Motors, TCS, Satyam, ACC, Bharti, Cipla, HDC, HLL, NTPC, SBI, Tata Power, TataSteel, ITC and Wipro closed weak on selling pressure.