Sensex falls from 2-1/2 months high in late sell-off

 After two days of rise, the benchmark BSE Sensex today slipped from its 2-1/2 months high by falling 75 points to 27,945.80 on late sell-off in metal and IT stocks as investors preferred to stay on the sidelines amid uncertainty over Greece situation.

Despite a strong start against the backdrop of firm Asian cues, market turned highly volatile during the last hour and succumbed to profit-booking as investors turned cautious.

"Markets remained lacklustre as investors preferred to stay sidelines ahead of Greece outcome. Tough RBI governor statement -- India's exposure to the Greece is limited -- tried to cheer the street but indices shed the gains in last leg of trade," said Gaurav Jain, Director at Hem Securities.

In early trade, the 30-share index rose to a day's high of 28,115.96 points on the back of a stronger global market on hopes of a Greece deal and buying by foreign investors.

However, on across-the-board selling towards the close, the Sensex slipped into negative zone and closed the session 75.07 points or 0.27 per cent down at 27,945.80, slipping from its two-and-a-half months high.
The gauge had gained 376 points in previous two sessions.

The 50-issue NSE Nifty fell by 8.15 points or 0.10 per cent to 8,444.90. It shuttled between 8,479.25 and 8,433.20 during the session.

"We saw a mild pause to the out performance of the Indian market, especially to front stocks and indexes. But the undercurrent continues to be strong with a rally in the mid-caps," said Vinod Nair, Head of Fundamental Research at Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.

Stocks related to irrigation segment such as Finolex Industries, Jain Irrigation Systems, Shakti Pumps, Kaveri Seeds, Monsanto India, Dhanuka Agritech and Advanta surged up to 8 per cent after the government decided to spend Rs 50,000 crore under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojna.

Tata Motors fell the most among Sensex stocks by dropping 1.84 per cent despite the firm reported a 6 per cent increase in total sales in June, followed by Hindalco at 1.72 per cent.

Stocks of software exporters also faced selling after revenue warnings by some IT firms and Eurozone worries led to concern about June-quarter earnings.

From Asia, barring China, most equities ended higher tracking strong finish on Wall Street overnight. Key indices from Germany, France and the UK were up between 1.34 per cent and 1.87 per cent in early trade.

Meanwhile, the global rating agency Fitch lowered India's economic growth projections to 7.8 per cent for the fiscal from 8 per cent earlier.

Pramit Brahmbhatt, Veracity Group CEO said: "...not much action was seen in the local equity market as the unsolved Greek debt issue continues to dent the movement of indices and traded flat and looked to consolidated ahead of the major US economic data due for the day."

Out of 30-share Sensex pack, 20 finished lower.
Major losers were Tata Motors (1.84 pc), Hindalco (1.72 pc), HDFC Bank (1.33 pc), Vedanta (1.08 pc), ONGC (1.07 pc), Cipla (1.06 pc), Dr Reddy's (1.00 pc), Infosys (0.96 pc), Maruti (0.89 pc), GAIL (0.79 pc) and HDFC (0.73).

Among the gainers included Bharti Airtel (2.13 pc), M&M (2.00 pc), Bajaj Auto (1.67 pc) Axis Bank (0.62 pc) Hero MotoCorp (0.56 pc) and Wipro (0.53 pc).

Sectorally, the BSE metal index fell the most by plunging 0.62 per cent, followed by IT (0.41 pc), healthcare (0.40 pc), realty (0.19 pc) and capital goods (0.13 pc).

The market breadth remained positive trend as 1,519 stocks advanced, 1251 shares declined and 116 ruled steady. Total turnover dropped to Rs 2,710.70 crore from Rs 3,226.25 crore yesterday.