Market ends flat amid volatility

The market saw high volatility as stocks gyrated between zones throughout the trading session with the Sensex witnessing an intra-day swing of 187 points. The Sensex began the trading session with a positive gap of 13 points at 13951 and rallied sharply above the 14000 level to touch an intra-day high of 14035. Selling pressure at higher levels saw the index plunge deep into the red and slip below the 13850 mark to a low of 13848. The Sensex managed to erase its losses and closed with gains of 11 points at 13949. The Nifty ended flat at 4016.

The breadth of the market was negative. Of the 2,644 stocks traded on the BSE 1,638 stocks declined, 945 stocks advanced and 61 stocks ended unchanged.

Among the sectoral indices the BSE CD index shed 2.47%, the BSE HC index declined 0.72% and the BSE Auto index was down 0.69%. The BSE FMCG index, the BSE PSU index, the BSE CG index, the BSE Oil & Gas index and the BSE Metal index closed with losses.

Selective buying helped the index overcome its losses. Ranbaxy gained 1.58% at Rs391, BHEL advanced 1.46% at Rs2,621 and Bharti Airtel added 1.25% at Rs647. ICICI Bank, Reliance Communications, ONGC, TCS, Satyam and HDFC Bank notched up steady gains.

Selling was evident in select heavyweights. Reliance Energy dropped 2.34% at Rs540, Cipla declined 1.76% at Rs248, ACC tumbled 1.67% at Rs1145, ITC shed 1.45% at Rs188, Gujarat Ambuja dipped 1.16% at Rs140, Dr Reddy’s was down 1.14% at Rs757 and NTPC shed 1% at Rs148. Rajesh Exports dipped 5.91% at Rs267, Gitanjali dropped 4.08% at Rs221 and Blue Star declined 3.63% at Rs176. Titan Industries, Videocon Industries and Goldiam were down 0.50-2% each.

Over 36.88 lakh Parsvanath shares changed hands on the BSE followed by SAIL (27.39 lakh shares), Adani Enterprises (24.70 lakh shares), Lanco (21.01 lakh shares) and Ispat Industries (19.97 lakh shares).

Value-wise Parsvanath clocked a turnover of Rs192.15 crore on the BSE followed by Reliance Industries (Rs123.74 crore), Century Textiles (Rs87.93 crore), Tata Steel (Rs76.83 crore) and Reliance Communication (Rs60.84 crore).