After five-day feast, Sensex sheds 320 pts

The Bombay Stock Exchange’s (BSE) benchmark 30-share Sensitive Index (Sensex) fell 2.25 per cent today as investors ignored strong earnings from Reliance Industries Ltd and Bharti Airtel and instead took profits on a five-day rally that had lifted the market to two-month highs. It shed 320.30 points to 13,908.58, with 27 components losing ground and trimming the gains for the week to just 0.1 per cent.

The index had risen 4.5 per cent over the previous five days, and at Thursday’s close was 3.4 per cent below its record high. Technical charts showed that the index had been overbought, as measured by a 14-day relative strength index chart, for a week. The 50-share Nifty index lost 2.26 percent to 4,083.50 while in the broader market, 1,706 losers outpaced 825 gainers on volume of 214.9 million shares.

Today investors were booking profits as the results season has more or less ended so. The markets may see some further correction given the lack of interest in buying, as the BSE will be shut on Tuesday and Wednesday for holidays. Reliance Industries, the biggest stock in the main index, fell 3.7 per cent to

Rs 1,538.20. Reliance reported a higher-than-expected 14 per cent rise in quarterly profit on Thursday but traders said that the company’s silence on an expected stock split had disappointed the market. At Thursday’s close, the stock had risen almost 17 per cent in April.