Late selloff pushes markets into red

Markets ended on a disappointing note after it spend better part of the day in the positive terrain.A sudden and sharp fall materialised on the bourses in the last two hours or so of trade. Caution ahead of the outcome of assembly poll results in Uttar Pradesh tomorrow, 11 May 2007, and subdued European markets pulled down domestic bourses lower in late trading from earlier strong gains.

The Sensex’s provisional closing was 13750.29, a fall of 31.22 points ,while closed at 4066 down by 12 points.

A host of Sensex constituents, ONGC, NTPC, Ranbaxy, Reliance Industries (RIL) and Reliance Energy (REL), came under selling pressure in the second half of the trading session. In contrast, two cement scrips,Grasim and ACC, and Hero Honda witnessed a late surge. Housing finance major HDFC survived late weakness on the bourses.

Oil exploration major ONGC lost 3% to Rs 882.NPTC, Ranbaxy, L&T, Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel, Tata Motors and Reliance Energy dropped between 1% to 2%.

TCS shed 0.5% to Rs 1230.Car major Maruti Udyog shed 1.3% to Rs 792.