Market ends on a bearish note

he market took a sharp dip after an initial surge and continued moving southwards through the day as shares across sectors came under the grip of relentless selling pressure. The trading session witnessed extreme volatility. After a firm open at a new intra-day high of 13678, 172 points above its previous close, the market failed to hold on to its early gains and drifted into negative territory and touched the day's low of 13383. Along with the selling in heavyweights, there was a major correction in healthcare, metal, FMCG, banking and auto stocks. The Sensex finally wrapped up the session with losses of 76 points at 13429, while the Nifty fell 24 points to close at 3853.

The market breadth was negative, with the losers outpacing the gainers in the ratio of 1:0.34. Of the 2,582 stocks traded on the BSE, 641 stocks advanced, 1,887 stocks declined and 54 stocks ended unchanged. All the sectoral indices ended with steep losses with the BSE HC index shedding 1.84% at 3707. The BSE Metal index was down 1.63% at 8790, the BSE FMCG index slipped 1.44% at 2006, the BSE Bankex shed 1.21% at 7125 and the BSE Auto index closed weaker by 1.14% at 5211.

Among the losers Dr Reddy’s was the major loser and dropped 5.01% at Rs736. ONGC fell 2.49% at Rs849, Gujarat Ambuja Cements lost 2.05% at Rs136, Cipla shed 1.85% at Rs260, Ranbaxy slipped 1.82% at Rs390, Hero Honda tanked 1.76% at Rs694, ITC dropped 1.76% at Rs182, HDFC was down 1.63% at Rs1,126, Grasim slipped 1.57% at Rs2,675, ICICI Bank fell 1.46% at Rs875, REL lost 1.43% at Rs514, HLL dropped 1.30% at Rs240 and Tata Steel closed weaker by 1.24% at Rs476. Bajaj Auto, BHEL and Satyam were down 1% each. Wipro, Maruti, Hindalco, Tata Motors, Infosys and RIL also ended the day in negative territory. However, HDFC gained 3.32% at Rs1,608 and NTPC soared 3% at Rs139. ACC, Reliance Communication, Bharti Airtel and TCS were up around 1% each. SBI and L&T also ended the day in positive territory.

Over 54.11 lakh Deccan Aviation shares changed hands on the BSE followed by NTPC (46.58 lakh shares), Silverline Technologies (39.85 lakh shares), Hindalco (29.24 lakh shares) and Development Credit Bank (25.14 lakh shares).

Value-wise Tech Mahindra registered a turnover of Rs172.57 crore on the BSE followed by Mahindra Gesco (Rs168.98 crore), SBI (Rs125.22 crore), Glenmark Pharma (Rs90.35 crore) and Hindustan Zinc (Rs83.66 crore).