Profit booking drags Sensex 80 pts down; PNB plunges 4%

Moneycontrol Bureau

The 30-share BSE benchmark lost another 80 points amid volatility on Monday as profit booking continued for the second consecutive session after hitting a record high last week.

Experts feel the market may be volatile going ahead due to lack of trigger and may also see some correction as the September quarter earnings largely discounted by the market. The rally till a record high of 21321.53 had been led by inflow of foreign money, more or less better-than-expected earnings and no tapering from Federal Reserve.
 
Sandeep Shenoy of Anand Rathi Financial Services believes that the market is likely to see a time correction given the lack of major triggers. He expects fall of around 5 percent until third quarter earnings arrive.

"We are headed into a dead zone. So, our time correction has to happen and investors have to be prepared for that and that is just a part of the cycle," he added.

The Sensex was down 79.85 points to close at 20894.94, and the Nifty fell 38 points to 6215.15, but BSE Smallcap outperformed benchmarks with 0.8 percent upmove. Advancing shares outnumbered declining ones by 1302 to 1135 on the BSE.

Financials, metals, oil & gas, capital goods and cement stocks saw selling pressure while technology, power, healthcare stocks gained.

Punjab National Bank and State Bank of India are the biggest losers in the Nifty, falling between 3.5-4 percent followed by Ambuja Cements, Bank of Baroda and DLF with 3 percent loss.

Major largecaps like Reliance Industries, HDFC, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank declined 1-2 percent.

State-run BHEL lost over 1 percent after its second quarter net profit fell 64.2 percent year-on-year to Rs 456 crore on lower revenues, supported largely by higher other income.

Among other earnings, Voltas fell 2 percent while ABB (up 2.5 percent), GlaxoSmithKline Consumer (up 2.5 percent), Sona Koyo (up 11 percent) and SJVN (up 3.5 percent) saw buying interest.

NTPC topped the buying list with 3.6 percent gains followed by TCS with 2.4 percent upmove.