Market ends on a disappointing note

The markets ended on a disappointing note giving up all their gains it had posted during the earlier part of day despite a strong bounce back in markets across Asia. Asian markets ended with gains of around 1-1.5%. The European markets also opened in the positive terrain.

Sensex closed up 14.23 points or 0.11% at 12543.85, and the Nifty up 2.50 points or 0.07% at 3643.6.

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) gained 0.08% to Rs 1487, after the company said on Thursday a consortium, including the firm, had secured a contract of Rs 1400 crore for the expansion of the Vizag Steel plant of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam. L&T's share of the project is around Rs 810 crore.State Bank of India dropped 2.5% to Rs 923.80, on reports suggesting that India's largest commercial lender had paid substantially lesser fourth installment towards advance tax.

FIIs pressed heavy sales on Wednesday, the day when the Sensex had plunged 453 points. As per provisional data, FIIs were net sellers to the tune of Rs 541 crore on that day. They were net sellers to the tune of Rs 84 crore on Tuesday (13 March 2007), the day when the benchmark Sensex had risen 80 points.

Mutual funds continued selling equities on Tuesday (13 March 2007). However, the outflow of Rs 13.48 crore by domestic funds on Tuesday, was much lower than Monday (12 March)’s Rs 146 crore. The outflow was still higher at Rs 384 crore on Friday (9 March 2007).