Market pares losses

The market pared losses in a volatile mid-morning trade led by
gains in index pivotal ICICI Bank. Some of the mid-cap software
shares were in demand. Major selling was seen in the realty
counters.

At 11:20 IST, the BSE 30-share Sensex was down 207.84 points or
1.38% to 14,842.02. The index shed 267.93 points at the day's low
of 14,781.9, hit in early trade. It lost 126.53 points at the day's
high of 14,923.33 points, hit in early trade.

The S&P CNX Nifty was down 74.90 points or 1.66% to 4429.10.

The BSE Mid-Cap index was down 0.29% at 5,820.03 and the BSE
Small-Cap index was down 0.04% at 6,979.41.

The market breadth was weak on BSE with 976 shares advancing as
compared to 1099 that declined. 70 shares remained unchanged.

India's leading drug maker by sales Ranbaxy Laboratories rose 0.54%
at Rs 493. It had hit a low of Rs 469.10 earlier. The company lost
a patent challenge against Pfizer over selling cholesterol drug,
Lipitor in Denmark. The Ranbaxy stock lost 5.42% in past two
sessions to Rs 490.35 on 2 September 2008 from Rs 518.50 on 29
August 2008.

India's largest private sector bank by market capitalisation ICICI
Bank rose 1.23% at Rs 722.10. ICICI Bank stock accounts for third
highest weightage of 7.50% on the Sensex.

India's largest commercial vehicles maker Tata Motors fell 1.20% at
Rs 424.70. The company has suspended work on its plant in Singur in
the face of huge farmer and political protests. The decision was
taken in order to ensure the safety of its employees and contract
labour, the company said in a statement.

India's largest private sector firm by market capitalisation and
oil refiner Reliance Industries (RIL) fell 1.79% at Rs 2173.90.

Major Sensex losers were, Sterlite Industries (down 4.03% at Rs
610.85), Reliance Infrastructure (down 2.71% at Rs 1013.50),
Housing Development Finance Corporation (down 2.17% at Rs 2392),
and ONGC (down 2.25% at Rs 1076.80).

Mid-cap software shares rose. I-flex Solutions (up 2.48% at Rs
1,244), Tech Mahindra (up 2.07% at Rs 773), Aptech (up 1.55% at Rs
233.15), Mphasis (up 1.04% at Rs 247), and Financial Technologies
(up 0.32% at Rs 1,425.90), moved up. The BSE IT index rose 0.17% at
4,073.96.

India's second largest software exporter by sales Infosys
Technologies rose 0.74% at Rs 1789.90. Infosys Technologies stock
accounts for second highest weightage of 8.16% on the Sensex.

Realty shares witnessed selling pressure. Indiabulls Real Estate
(down 7.24% at Rs 299), Housing Development & Infrastructure (down
3.79% at Rs 313.50), Unitech (down 3.30% at Rs 164), and DLF (down
2.82% at Rs 514.90), slipped. The BSE Realty index was down 3.59%
at 5,174.68.

Low ash metallurgical coke maker Austral Coke and Projects was
trading at Rs 260.45, a 32.88% premium over issue price of Rs 196.
It debuted on BSE at Rs 206, a 5.10% premium over its issue price.

UCO Bank soared 4.44% to Rs 42.35 on BSE, on reports the bank plans
to raise about Rs 600 crore from follow on public offer (FPO) in
the September-December quarter of the current fiscal.

Textile firm Bombay Dyeing & Manufacturing Company gained 2.67% to
Rs 579.70 on reports the company may rake in Rs 900 crore by next
year by selling a small part of the 8 lakh square feet commercial
property it is developing in Central Mumbai.

Construction firm PBA Infrastructure jumped 7.02% to Rs 70.10 after
the company secured a contract worth Rs 122.04 crore from Pimpri
Municipal Corporation, Pimpri in the state of Maharashtra for
laying roads.

Asian markets were trading lower today, 4 September 2008. Key
indices in Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan
were trading down by 0.04% to 2.62%