The markets displayed steady buying trends till mid-morning deals, as the Sensex which opened with a gain of 38 points at 5,841 registered few more gains to touch a high of 5,854 on buying in select old and new economy stocks.

The market was engulfed in negative territory thereafter as sluggish trading in select stocks kept the index in a range-bound mode till mid-noon deals. The sentiment turned further bearish towards the fag-end as a wave of selling pressure in almost all the sectors dragged the index below the 5,700 levels to a low of 5,686.

The Sensex with its third consecutive loss, ended the last day of the trading week at 5,696 - down 107 points.

The Nifty, too, had a weak outing, and lost 34 points to close at 1,810.

Reliance witnessed selling pressure in its counter, and ended 1.82% lower (Rs 10) at Rs 560. ITC declined a per cent (Rs 10) to close at Rs 1,023. HLL, however, closed up a rupee at Rs 189.

BHEL slipped sharply towards the closing deal, and dropped nearly 8% (Rs 42) to Rs 513.

SBI slumped 4.52% (Rs 28) to Rs 596. The banking major reported a 17% increase in net profit at Rs 919.44 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2003 as against Rs 787.05 crore in Q3FY03.

HPCL, which reported a 134% increase in net profit at Rs 775.71 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2003 as against Rs 330.62 crore in Q3FY03, closed down a per cent (Rs 5) at Rs 446 on the BSE.

MTNL, which ended with a gain of 1.68% (Rs 2) at Rs 133 on the BSE, posted a 113% increase in net profit at Rs 462.84 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2003 as against Rs 217.06 crore in Q3FY03.

Infosys ended with a loss of 1.33% (Rs 70) at Rs 5,195. While Satyam declined 3% (Rs 10) to Rs 318, Wipro was down a per cent (Rs 13) at Rs 1,558.

Grasim slumped 3.34% (Rs 38) to Rs 1,112. ACC slipped from higher levels, and ended with a loss of 1.75% (Rs 5) at Rs 255. While L&T dipped 3.76% (Rs 19) to Rs 499, Gujarat Ambuja dipped 2.75% (Rs 8) to Rs 289.

Hindalco (down Rs 66 or 5.39% to Rs 1,163), ONGC (down Rs 26 or 3.39% to Rs 739), BSES (down Rs 17 or 3.16% to Rs 536), HDFC Bank (down Rs 8 or 2.27% to Rs 345) and Bharti Tele (down Rs 4 or 2.85% to Rs 135) ended with steep losses on relentless selling pressure.

Cipla ended down a per cent (Rs 13) at Rs 1,201. For the quarter ended December 31, 2003, the pharma major reported a net profit of Rs 75.32 crore as against Rs 66.46 crore in Q3FY03.

While Dr. Reddy's dropped 2.39% (Rs 34) to Rs 1,399, Ranbaxy shed 1.50% (Rs 15) to Rs 994.

Tisco crashed nearly 6% (Rs 25) to Rs 404. Tata Power also ended with a huge decline of 4.52% (Rs 18) at Rs 375. Zee shed 2.48% (Rs 4) to Rs 151.

Tata Motors lost 1.59% (Rs 8) to Rs 520. Bajaj was down Rs 5 at Rs 997. Hero Honda, however, closed up a per cent (Rs 3) at Rs 452.

ICICI Bank ended at higher levels with a gain of 2.79% (Rs 8) at Rs 295.