Sensex ends with marginal gains

n a listless trading session, the market displayed a range-bound trend with alternate bouts of buying and selling. After opening 47 points above its previous close the Sensex moved up to touch an intra-day high of 13712. The market remained steady in noon trades. However the sentiment turned bearish towards the end of the session and the index dipped to the day's low of 13586. The Sensex recouped its losses on selective buying interest and ended the trading session at 13617, up 15 points. The Nifty advanced six points to close at 3928. The market breadth was positive on the BSE. Of the 2,623 stocks traded, 1,662 stocks advanced, 888 stocks declined and the remaining stocks ended unchanged.

The sectoral indices were mixed. The BSE Auto index, the BSE CD index, the BSE CG index, the BSE HC index and the BSE Metal index ended in positive territory. On the other hand the BSE Bankex, the BSE IT index, the BSE PSU index, the BSE Oil & Gas index and the BSE Teck index exhibited weakness. The BSE FMCG index was up 1.47% at 2015.

Among the gainers ACC surged 4.22% at Rs1,146, Grasim gained 2.75% at Rs2,790, ITC jumped 2.45% at Rs184, Gujarat Ambuja added 2.06% at Rs146, Dr Reddy’s advanced 1.64% at Rs735, Bajaj Auto was up 1.32% at Rs2,673 and TCS advanced 1.29% at Rs1,164. Reliance Communication, Maruti and Reliance Energy reported steady gains. However, Cipla dropped 2.53% at Rs249, ONGC shed 1.26% at Rs857 and Bharti Airtel dipped 1.20% at Rs621. BHEL, NTPC, and ICICI Bank closed with marginal losses.

Nova Petro at Rs16.80 and Nandan Exim at Rs11.65 hit the lower circuit on the BSE. On the other hand Adani Enterprises at Rs216.95 hit the upper circuit.

Over 1.14 crore Lanco Infratech shares changed hands on the BSE followed by SAIL (25.35 lakh shares), Gujarat Ambuja (21.90 lakh shares) and Reliance Communication (19.74 lakh shares).