Updated at 6.10 pm
MUMBAI: Profit-sellers chased away the bulls that characterised trading in the last two sessions, as a result of which the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex on Friday declined marginally by 37.49 points to end at 12,236.78.
Positive factors like aggressive buying by foreign funds and fall in inflation failed to boost the market sentiment as market players were busy booking profit, brokers said.
A general weekend fatigue was seen in the market as bulls took a respite today after last two days of smart gains when the Bombay Stock Exchange index garnered nearly 304 points, they added.
A fall in index-based shares like SBI, ONGC, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Maruti, TCS, Infosys Tech, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, L&T, Dr Reddy, ITC, HLL and Dr Reddy, weighed negatively on the market while smart rally in RIL, Grasim, ACC, Bajaj Auto and Bharti Airtel cushioned the Sensex fall to some extent.
The BSE-30 share sensitive index opened low at 12,244.41 as against Thursday's close of 12,274.27 and moved in a range of 12,303.42 and 12,170.20 before closing at 12,236.78, a net loss of 0.31 per cent.
Similarly, the National Stock Exchange's S&P CNX Nifty declined by 9.00 points or 0.25 per cent to 3,544.05 from the previous close of 3,553.05.
On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite Index yesterday dipped by 79.96 points and 15.14 points respectively. Most of the Asian markets also ended in the red on weekend profit-selling.
Foreign Institutional Investors reportedly bought shares worth Rs 1007.70 crore on the first three days of the week while injected Rs 235.38 crore on Thursday as per provisional data.
