Mumbai, June 29: With the US Fed deciding to keep the interest rates unchanged, the domestic markets remained in positive territory but showed some weak trends towards close. For Friday, brokers expect some lacklustre trading but has words of caution on the recent trend of operator domination and lack of fund-buying. With a number of pivotal stocks - led by ITC - remaining strong, the Sensex closed 44 points up at 4793 with total turnover in the north of Rs 4,000 crore.Pharma stocks were in the limelight during Thursday's trading. According to dealers, a report by a leading market research organisation predicting double digit growth for pharma companies had a positive impact on the market's movement. But the markets weakened during the closing hours, which the dealers attribute to the selling resorted by the momentum traders who had found the Nasdaq futures weak in the opening.
For Friday, the last day of trading in the current settlement on the BSE, market players expect some selling to come in. Also the outstandings are slightly higher compared to the last week's. So some squaring off of positions might take place, said a dealer with a domestic broking house.
On Thursday morning, the stocks were boosted by the smart rally on Nasdaq on Wednesday night after the Fed kept the interest rates unchanged. At the opening of trading, a large number of software stocks opened firm, and remained strong in the first half.
However, sentiment took a sharp turn with Rolta leading the fall. Among the top counters, Pentamedia took the lead and fell sharply. Other counters also followed and during the second half, huge fall witnessed in all the software stocks. A large number of software stocks showed a negative close.
While software sector was under selling pressure, pivotals like HLL, ITC, Reliance remained in good demand, and managed to post handsome gains. The cement sector also attracted huge investment buying, and stocks like L&T, Grasim, and Gujarat Ambuja showed handsome gains. L&T gained 12 per cent and recorded all-time high volume of 58 lakh shares on the BSE.
Mirroring the sentiment, the Sensex opened at 4820.58 points, touched a peak of 4849.97 points. The close for the day was 4792.74 points, whereas the low for the day was 4785.63 points. The S&P CNX Nifty gained 19 points, and showed a close at 1489.10 points. While the low for the day was 1471.35 points, the high for the day was 1505.75 points. On the BSE, the number of advances stood at 784, and the number of declines was at 789. At the same time, 189 stocks remained unchanged. Meanwhile, the volume on the BSE stood at 4007 crore.
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