Mkts close weak, Sensex down 67 pts

Mumbai: In another day of choppy trade, the stock markets failed to maintain the day's higher levels and ended 67 points down at 10,786.63, snapping the three-day winning string.

Retail investors and Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) carried out heavy selling at every rise in the markets while domestic mutual funds also absorbed some part of the sales.

The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) 30-share sensitive index (sensex) attempted short rallies, touching the intra-day high of 10,988.23 but the across-the-board selling in some sectors pulled the markets sharply down at the fag end.

After hitting the day's low of 10,722.92, the Sensex later ended the day at 10,786.63 from Monday's close of 10,853.14, a net fall of 66.51 points or 0.61 per cent.

The National Stock Exchange's (NSE) S&P CNX Nifty too shed 29.60 points or 0.92 per cent to close at 3,185.30 from previous close of 3,214.90.

Auto stocks bore the brunt of selling pressure triggered by concerns over a likely hike in petrol and diesel prices at home amid soaring global oil prices.

Cement and Metal shares also suffered a sharp setback.

IT and Consumer Durable counters, however, bucked the trend and registered moderate gains on select buying support from financial institutions.

The volatility seemed to be driving bull operators away from the markets, brokers said.

"The bull operators became extremely cautious in the light of sustained FII sales in the Cash," they added.

Stocks from auto, banking and metal sector witnessed heavy selling on the bourses.

However, providing support at the lower level were technology stocks.

Major losers on the indices were Tata Motors, Hero Honda, Maruti Udyog, ACC, NALCO, and VSNL.

The volatility was largely attributed to profit booking by retail investors at every rise in the market.

Anticipating selling pressure at higher levels, market players said the participation of retail investors reduced substantially and they were seen booking profits at every rise during the trading.

Brokers however anticipated selling pressure in the latter part of the trading.

The major losers were HDFC, ONGC, Grasim Industries, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Hind. Lever, Cipla, Ranbaxy Lab, Tata Steel and Bharti Airtel.

However, heavy-weighted Reliance Industries was in positive territory with a gain of Rs 9.50 at Rs 966.05 while Infosys Technologies rose by Rs 14.35 at Rs 2,981.