Indian shares snap record rally

04 Mar, 2006

Indian shares snapped a four-day record-setting rally on Friday after private sector lenders such as ICICI Bank and HDFC dropped following sharp gains in recent sessions.
Top telecom firm Bharti Tele-Ventures bucked the trend to rise more than 3 percent, and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam added 1.2 percent on reports the country's top court had barred state governments from charging sales tax on their services.
The 30-share BSE index ended 0.30 percent lower at 10,595.43 points with losers edging out gainers 1,467 to 1,009 in volume of 202 million shares. The index gained 3.9 percent on the week and is up nearly 13 percent so far this year.
"It was a mixed bag today with sectors like engineering, construction and automobiles gaining, while others like banking seeing some selling," said Jayesh Shroff, a fund manager at BOB Mutual Fund.
Majors losers of the day were HDFC, India's top mortgage finance firm, down 2.8 percent to 1,318.15 rupees and ICICI Bank, lower 1.8 percent at 608.85 rupees from Thursday.
"The market may move sideways in the next few sessions," Shroff said.
The 50-issue NSE index eased 0.11 percent to 3,147.35.

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