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Sensex slips, loses 187

Our Bureau

MUMBAI, Feb. 25

INDIAN stocks wiped out their previous gains as operators unwound positions in Bombay Stock Exchange's end-account trade today.

The BSE Sensex shed 187.09 points to end at 5,623.08 points. The Sensex opened marginally higher at 5,810.17, which was also the session's high. Thereafter, it moved down to finally close at 5,623.08.

The S&P CNX Nifty opened at 1734.05 hit a high of 1757.05 only to close at 1710.45, losing 21.55 points over the previous close of 1732.

No sooner than the market opened, share prices tumbled on operator selling induced by a number of factors. High badla rates yesterday at the Calcutta Stock Exchange prompted speculators to liquidate their positions to avoid carry forward.

``A lot of scrips have attracted additional volatility margins, resulting in higher margin payment coupled. Apart from this, net-outstanding positions are so high that it would have been difficult to carry-forward positions,'' a broker form a leading bro king outfit said.

Sentiment was further dampened when the NSE disabled a large number of member terminals on account of margin and exposure violations.

Anticipating a tax burden on the IT sector in the upcoming Budget proposals, market participants hammered down many of the IT stocks. Noticeable among them were Infosys, which hit the lower end of the circuit. NIIT also contributed to the downturn as it slipped Rs. 180 to Rs. 2,450.

``But for HLL, the market would have gone below the 5,500 mark,'' said a dealer at a local brokerage firm. HLL shares ended unchanged at Rs. 3,099. Over two lakh shares, valued at Rs. 65 crores, of the FMCG major were traded on the BSE.

The impact of the Railway freight hike was largely sidelined by the slide before the weekend and the upcoming Union Budget, which absorbed stock markets today.

Digital Equipment, Escorts, McDowell, Punjab Tractor and Rhone Poulenc hit the lower end of the 8 per cent circuit on BSE.

According to one broker, foreign funds' purchases were relatively lower in comparison to the previous few sessions.

Cadbury continued its upturn on bonus news and improved results. The share rose by more than 8 per cent to Rs. 881.70. Satyam continued to top the turnover list on the BSE, followed by Zee, HFCL, Global Tele and Penta Software.