Four-day rally halts abruptly

The market snapped its four-day long dream run, to settle with modest losses due to profit-booking. The Sensex had surged a sharp 878 odd points in the past four trading sessions, on value-buying with short-covering lending support.

The 30-share BSE Sensex settled 22.10 points lower, at 13,285.93.The S&P CNX Nifty settled 14.85 points (0.38%) lower, at 3,861.05.

Rollover from the March 2007 contracts to the April 2007 contracts has already started. With the market scheduled to remain closed next Tuesday (27 March) for a public holiday, only four trading sessions are left before the expiry of the March 2007 contracts.

The important inflation data that analysts awaited today was released. India's wholesale price index rose 6.46% in the 12 months to 10 March 2007, matching the previous week's annual increase, data showed on Friday. The figure was slightly lower than a forecast of 6.51% in a poll of analysts. The annual inflation rate was 3.80% during the corresponding week of the previous year.

Cigarette maker ITC was the top loser, down 3.44% to Rs 144.Gujarat Ambuja Cements (down 1.95% to Rs 105.80), TCS (down 1.57% to Rs 1283.45) and ONGC (down 1.50% to Rs 839.50) were the other losers.Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) was up 0.28% to Rs 1378.