Market ends choppy

After gaining over 270 points in the last two trading sessions, the Sensex touched a new all-time high of 13790 in early trades. However the Sensex could not hold on to its gains and slipped in the afternoon. Select buying towards the close saw the Sensex pare some losses and end the session at 13681, down 26 points, while the Nifty shed nine points and closed at 3945.

The market breadth was marginally weak. Of the 2,617 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,319 stocks declined, 1,224 stocks advanced and 74 stocks remained unchanged. Among the sectoral indices the BSE FMCG index shed 0.90% at 1993, the BSE IT index declined 0.38% at 5135, the BSE HC index was marginally down 0.04% at 3720, the BSE Oil & Gas index declined 0.50% at 6194 and the BSE Teck index dropped 0.57% at 3560. However the BSE CG Index gained 1.17% at 9110.

Among the heavyweights, Satyam Computers tanked 3.18% at Rs463, Bharti Airtel dropped 2.37% at Rs623, Hindustan Lever fell 1.70% at Rs241, ONGC declined 1.3% at Rs845, Reliance Energy shed 1.23% at Rs546 and Tata Motors was down 1.16% at Rs823. ITC, Reliance Communication, Cipla, Reliance Industries, ACC, Wipro and ICICI Bank were down around 0.50% each.

Among the gainers the HDFC Bank soared 2.76% at Rs1,108, Hero Honda advanced 2.39%, BHEL rose 2.19% at Rs2,517 and L&T was up 2.15% at Rs1,403. Bajaj Auto, NTPC, HDFC and Maruti Udyog also notched up decent gains.

Select capital goods stocks attracted buying support. Praj Industries advanced Rs10 at Rs191, TRF gained Rs21 at Rs418, Areva spurted Rs43 at Rs910 and DS Kulkarni was up Rs16 at Rs344. ABB, Siemens, BHEL and Punj Lloyd also closed in positive territory.