MUMBAI: Dealers said that the market opened little changed from its previous session's close and traded within a close range for the better part of the trading session before slipping lower towards the end of the trade on profit taking. The stock market barometer 30-share Bombay Stock Exchange sensitive index or Sensex closed at 3,604.43, a marginal loss of 2.70 points or 0.07 percent from its previous session's close. "The market was ripe for some technical correction after all these sessions' massive gains. A mid-course correction in valuation of some stocks was long overdue," said a fund manager with a foreign brokerage firm. "The overall market is still very bullish and this gets reflected in the small quantum of loss that the benchmark index witnessed today. The fund inflows into the bourses continue to be very strong," the fund manager added. The market index has smartly rallied for the past five consecutive weeks and has recovered substantially from a six-month low touched in April this year. With the market getting into a bullish phase, foreign institutional investors have sharply increased their allocation for the Indian market, say analysts. The foreign funds are betting on higher Indian economic growth in the current fiscal year, helped by normal distribution of monsoon rainfall all across the country. The quantity of rainfall in the June-September period is crucial for the farm sector that accounts for nearly a quarter of the gross domestic product and employs 70 percent of the country's over one billion population. Many traders believe that considering the current macro-economic situation and strong liquidity, the year may end up with record inflows by foreign institutional investors. In the old economy sector, cement counters such as Gujarat Ambuja Cements lost 2.5 percent to touch 200 and Associated Cement Companies closed with a loss of 2.1 percent at 163.60 on reports that cement prices have fallen. Tobacco major ITC fell 1.6 percent to 754.20 and State Bank of India, the country's largest commercial bank, closed with a loss of 0.5 percent at 382.45 on institutional profit taking. Other major losers in the sector included Larsen and Toubro, Bajaj Auto, Hero Honda Motors and Cipla. In the technology sector, HCL Technologies, a New Delhi-based software development and services major, lost 1.3 percent to touch 152.55 and Hyderabad-based Satyam Computer ended 0.8 percent lower at 190.90. Infosys Technologies, India's largest listed software exporter, on the other hand, rose 1.2 percent to 3,304.95 on expectations of improved quarterly results. The company will announce its April-June financial numbers on July 10.
Source: IANS