Enlarge Photo The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) building is seen in Mumbai in this May 22, 2006...
Slideshow: Day in pics: May 22 08
Enlarge Photo The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) building is seen in Mumbai in this May 22, 2006...
Slideshow: Day in pics: May 22 08
Fri, Jun 6 12:02 PM
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's main stock index pared early gains of more than 1 percent in choppy trade on Friday, as high inflation, slowing growth and rising foreign fund outflows kept investors jittery.
Weekly inflation data due at noon is expected to show annual inflation in late May at 8.3 percent, its highest since August 2004, a Reuters poll showed on Thursday.
A 10 percent increase in state-set prices of petrol and diesel on Wednesday is expected to push the inflation rate to a 13-year high above 9 percent in early June.
"People are not taking fresh positions because of these fears," said K.K. Mital, CEO at Escorts Mutual Fund. "It's a wait and watch policy."
Foreign funds have dumped $527 million of stocks in the first three trading days this week, taking their total outflow this year to nearly $4.5 billion.
At 10:57 a.m., the 30-share BSE index was up 0.36 percent, or 56.21 points, at 15,825.93, with 14 components falling.
The index started 0.9 percent higher, rose as much as 1.3 percent before turning negative for some time.
In the broader market, 1,297 gainers were ahead of 754 losers on 69.2 million shares.
Top private firm Reliance Industries and mortgage lender Housing Development Finance Corp were leading the gains. Reliance rose 0.6 percent to 2,260.50 rupees, while
HDFC added 1.8 percent to 2,435 rupees.
Leading explorer Oil & Natural Gas Corp was trading 1.8 percent down at 936.30 rupees on profit taking, after rising more than 13 percent in the last two days as the fuel price increase is expected to lower the state-run firm's discount burden.
State-run refiners Indian Oil Corp rose 1.8 percent to 399.20 rupees, Bharat Petroleum gained 1.5 percent to 305.80 rupees and Hindustan Petroleum added 0.7 percent to 221.90.
All three had fallen sharply in the last two days after the fuel price increase was seen as giving only a brief respite to them.
The 50-share NSE index was up 0.28 percent at 4,689.85.
Elsewhere in the region, Karachi's 100-share index was down 1.71 percent at 12,831.10, while Colombo's All-share index fell 0.21 percent to 2,511.15.
STOCKS ON THE MOVE
* Shares in low-cost airline SpiceJet Ltd rose as much as 19.3 percent after a newspaper reported that Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group was in talks to acquire it. The stock was trading 13.9 percent up at 35.75 rupees at 0547 GMT.
* HOV Services Ltd rose by its daily limit of 20 percent to 100.40 rupees after the back-office firm said it received an offer of $202 million for sale of its HOV Services LLC subsidiary and its Hong Kong unit.
TOP THREE BY VOLUME
* IFCI Ltd on 6.7 million shares
* Marksans Pharma on 3.4 million shares
* Anu's Laboratories on 3.1 million shares
(Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy)
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