MUMBAI, July 24: After a better spell, pivotals on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) turned subdued today on emergence of profit-taking following reports of rejection of anticipatory bail application of Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav.

The BSE sensitive index started better at 4264.93 and improved further to the intra-day high of 4294.95. However, as a result of heavy selling at the fag end, the sensex crashed to finish at 4226.57 with a net gain of 24.56 points compared the previous level of 4251.13. The BSE-100 index also eased by 9.27 points to 1838.53.

Brokers said the sentiment turned weak on news of rejection by the Patna High Court of anticipatory bail application of Bihar Chief Minister, Laloo Prasad Yadav in the Fodder scam case.Earlier, the uptrend was boosted as the operators were satisfied with the Varma Committee recommendations on market-friendly carry-forward system. However, fears of possible fallout of imminent arrest of Yadav following the rejection of his bail plea affected the market sentiment.

Heavy-weighted index based scrips like Reliance, SBI, Telco, Tata Steel and ITC recorded sharp losses on selling pressure. However, Hindustan Lever, MTNL and Hindalco firmed up further on speculative support. Reliance recorded the highest turnover of Rs 201.63 crore of the total volume of business of Rs 887.75 crore followed by SBI Rs 172.97 crore, ITC Rs 105.61 crore, Tata Steel Rs 97.22 crore and Telco Rs 38.94 crore.

Reliance lost Rs 7.50 at Rs 352, SBI Rs 5.25 at Rs 324.25, ITC Rs 2.75 at Rs 510.75, Teclo Rs 10.75 at Rs 395.25 and Tata Steel Rs 3.75 at Rs 212 on selling pressure. However, Hindalco rose by Rs 39.50 to Rs 1050, Hindustan Lever Rs 20.25 to Rs 1384.50, MTNL by Rs 1.25 to Rs 279, Ranbaxy by Rs 4.75 to Rs 621.75, Britannia by Rs 4.75 to Rs 341.25, HDFC by Rs 54.75 to Rs 3931.25, Pond's by Rs 64.75 to Rs 1869.75 and Thermax by Rs 9.25 to Rs 361.25.

On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), prices declined marginally on lack of fresh demand from FIIs . The NSE-50 index closed at 1199.95, suffering a loss of 0.75 points. The Mid-cap index closed at 1309.05, losing 04.05 points. The total turnover on the NSE was Rs 1803.32 crore.

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