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Indian market ends flat on profit taking in tech shares
Wednesday, 08 October 2003, 19:30 IST
MUMBAI: India's key share market index finished little changed Tuesday after staging smart rally in five consecutive sessions with operators pocketing gains in stock of technology companies ahead of announcement of company results.
Dealers said that the market opened firm on continued institutional buying support in shares of auto, steel and cement companies on hopes that most of the firms would post robust financial numbers for the July-September quarter.
The market mood in the early trade was also buoyed by large-scale fund inflows by foreign institutional investors, which act as the backbone in India's liquidity starved capital market, in the last weekend.
Foreign funds pumped in a net $126.7 million into share markets on Friday, taking their total investment to $3.24 billion in the current year up from a meager $740 million in the previous year.
Foreign institutional investors have sharply stepped up their activity in the domestic market since last few months on hopes that the Indian economy would post a sharp growth in the current fiscal year.
The stock market, however, failed to maintain the bullish sentiment all through the trading session Tuesday and slipped lower in the second half of the trading sessions as investors rushed to take profit on counters of technology companies.
Reflecting the cautious sentiment, the stock market barometer 30-share Bombay Stock Exchange sensitive index or Sensex closed at 4,632.94, representing a moderate gain of 1.55 points or 0.03 percent over its previous session's close.
A host of blue-chip Indian technology and old economy firms will start unveiling their July-September financial numbers from this week, kicking off the crucial quarterly earnings season.
Infosys Technologies, India's largest listed software exporter, will fire up the earnings season by announcing its July-September quarterly result on October 10.
Market traders closely track quarterly and annual fiscal results of heavyweights like Infosys and consumer goods giant Hindustan Lever to get some clue about industry's overall health.
Traders say results of high-profile software makers for the quarter ended September are likely to show signs of softening pressure on billing rates.
While easing of pressure on billing rates is expected to have boosted the earnings of IT firms in July-September quarter, the rupee's rise against the dollar continues to inflict injuries to the export-oriented sector.
Most top Indian software makers on an average earn 70 percent of their annual revenue from the U.S. A sharp rise in the value of rupee threatens to badly hit their export earnings.
In the old economy sector, ICICI Bank, one of India's fastest growing private banks, gained 7.4 percent to touch 
227.60 and Gujarat Ambuja Cements ended 4.3 percent higher at 243.20.
Cement and engineering major Larsen and Toubro closed with a gain of 1.8 percent at 355.05 on speculations that cement off-take would improve in the months ahead as a result of the new construction activities.
Other major gainers in the sector included Tata Steel, Castrol India, state-run Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, Tata Motors, and Ranbaxy Laboratories.
In the technology sector, Infosys Technologies, India's largest listed software exporter, ended 2.3 percent lower at 4,456.05 on profit taking ahead of the announcement of quarterly result.
HCL Technologies, a New Delhi-based software development and services major, closed with a loss of 1.8 percent at 182.25 and Hyderabad-based Satyam Computer fell 0.5 percent to 256.55.
Source: IANS
227.60 and Gujarat Ambuja Cements ended 4.3 percent higher at 243.20.
Cement and engineering major Larsen and Toubro closed with a gain of 1.8 percent at 355.05 on speculations that cement off-take would improve in the months ahead as a result of the new construction activities.
Other major gainers in the sector included Tata Steel, Castrol India, state-run Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, Tata Motors, and Ranbaxy Laboratories.
In the technology sector, Infosys Technologies, India's largest listed software exporter, ended 2.3 percent lower at 4,456.05 on profit taking ahead of the announcement of quarterly result.
HCL Technologies, a New Delhi-based software development and services major, closed with a loss of 1.8 percent at 182.25 and Hyderabad-based Satyam Computer fell 0.5 percent to 256.55.
Source: IANS