Sensex off highs; Bajaj Auto, TCS, BHEL down

Mumbai - The Sensex pared most of the intraday gains as profit booking intensified in technology, power, auto and the capital goods sectors. According to analysts, the market is likely to remain rangebound for next few sessions and is awaiting government's policy action post the Presidential elections.

The Reserve Bank of India's policy meet will also be keenly watched. The RBI may not go ahead with the rate cut as inflation still continued to be above 7 per cent, they say.

At 12:30 p.m.; the 30-share index was at 17,139.53, up 36.22 points or 0.21 per cent. It has touched a high of 17,236.08 and a low of 17,136.38 in trade today.

The Nifty was at 5,204.40, up 7.15 points or 0.14 per cent. It has touched a high of 5,236.70 and a low of 5,203.60 in trade today.

"Breadth continues to drop in favour of declines suggesting widespread profit taking. Momentum has clearly shifted in the bearish camp in the short-term with daily and hourly oscillators rolling over. We maintain our downside target of 5,125 and a possible test of the 200 DMA at 5,094 which is also a cluster of earlier swing lows," said Edelweiss report.

The BSE Midcap Index was down 0.28 per cent and the BSE Smallcap Index slipped 0.19 per cent.

Among the sectoral indices, the BSE IT Index was down 0.66 percent, the BSE Power Index slipped 0.38 per cent and the BSE Auto Index declined 0.32 per cent. The BSE Healthcare Index rose 1.19 per cent and the BSE FMCG Index gained 0.58 per cent.

Bajaj Auto (2.11%), TCS (1.83%), BHEL (0.65%), Sterlite Industries (0.49%) and ONGC (0.40%) were among the major losers.

Dr Reddy's Laboratories (2.36%), Bharti Airtel (2.24%), Sun Pharmaceuticals (2.16%), Hindalco Industries (1.14%) and ITC (0.95%) were among the major Sensex gainers.

The market breadth was negative on the BSE with 1,056 gainers against 1,410 losers.

The foreign institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 257.17 crore on Friday, as per provisional data from the NSE.