MUMBAI (Dow Jones)--Indian shares snapped a four-day winning streak to end slightly lower Tuesday as telecoms, some autos and metals fell.
The Bombay Stock Exchange's 30-stock Sensitive Index dropped 58.16 points, or 0.4%, to end at 16,440.56.
"This is just profit-booking. Investors are taking advantage of market volatility to make quick profits," said R.K. Gupta, managing director at Taurus Asset Management.
The benchmark Sensex, which had risen 7.1% in the past four sessions, swung between 16,371.66 and 16,677.53 during the day.
"This volatility may continue until fresh liquidity comes into the market," said Gupta.
On the National Stock Exchange, the 50-stock S&P CNX Nifty closed down 16.70 points, or 0.3%, at 4,881.70.
Manish Sonthalia, a portfolio manager at Motilal Oswal Financial Services, said a stronger U.S. dollar versus the rupee is also hurting sentiment.
But he has a positive outlook for the Sensex.
"Any decline in the index is an opportunity to buy," said Sonthalia, who expects the index to reach 18,000 points by March 2010.
Total traded volume on the BSE Tuesday rose to INR59.53 billion, from Monday's INR49.95 billion.
Decliners beat gainers 1,463 to 1,290, while 56 stocks remained unchanged.
Telecoms continued to remain weak. Bharti Airtel, the country's largest cellphone operator by subscribers, slumped 4.5% to end at INR293.75. Reliance Communications closed down 2.9% at INR169.05.
"We remain cautious on the (Indian telecom) sector, given the rapidly declining revenue per minute measure and a move by the entire sector to a per-second billing format, which, in our view, will be revenue-destructive," HSBC said in a note.
Metals were mostly weak as base metal prices on the London Metal Exchange were lower on a stronger U.S. dollar and ahead of China's October preliminary metal import data.
Aluminum producer Hindalco Industries slid 2.0% to INR126.95.
Consumer goods maker Hindustan Unilever dipped 2.3% to INR264.75.
Autos were mixed. Two-wheeler maker Hero Honda Motors slipped 3.3% to INR1,500.40, while Tata Motors, India's biggest auto maker by sales, rose 2.3% to INR593.75.
Reliance Industries gained 1.4% to INR2,052.60 on news that the energy giant has discovered oil in the Cambay basin in the western state of Gujarat.
State Bank of India, the country's largest lender by assets, closed 2.1% higher at INR2,368.10 on expectations of a positive outlook for banks and hopes that the company's recent move to cut deposit rates would help protect margins
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