Domestic stocks ended lower as the recent rally paused somewhat. Global concerns and some profit selling led indices down. Participants showed concern on reports that Greece’s second bailout may be delayed. On the Bombay Stock Exchange, 1,640 scrips advanced, 1,292 declined while 112 remained unchanged from the previous day’s close.
The BSE Sensex seemed range-bound as it remained between 18,183 and 18,043 which were its day’s high and low values respectively. It finally closed at 18,154, down 0.3% from its previous close. The BSE Mid and Smallcap indices outperformed the benchmark by rising around 1% each. Meanwhile, the S&P CNX Nifty fell 10 points, down 0.2% from the previous day’s close.
In the sectoral space, 9 out of 13 BSE Sectoral indices rose in the session with BSE Realty leading the pack, up 1.5%. BSE Power followed, up 1.4%; power shares got a boost after the government asked Coal India to sign 20-year guaranteed fuel supply agreements with power producers. Among losing indices, BSE Metal fell the most, down 1.6%, followed by BSE Oil & Gas, which fell 1.5%. The fall in the Oil & Gas index was led by RIL after it said that natural gas production at its KG-D6 fields is likely to dip to an all-time low of about 22 mn cu-m a day by 2013-14.
Among individual shares on the 30-scrip Sensex, Coal India fell 5.4%, Hindalco was down 4.7% followed by Sterlite, down 4.2%. Rising shares included Jindal Steel (up 4.9%), Hero MotoCorp (up 4.6%) and SBI (up 4.4%).
Data from SEBI showed that FIIs bought Rs 1147 cr worth in the equities segment while remaining net sellers to the tune of Rs 314 cr in the debt segment.