Market tumbles amid volatility

The Sensex began the trading session 71 points above its previous close at 13453, and moved up initially to touch an intra-day high of 13568, up 186 points. The market exhibited volatility in the first half of the session, but lost its initial momentum and slipped. The sentiment turned bearish and the index slipped to the day's low of 13233. After exhibiting considerable volatility throughout the day the Sensex ended the session with losses of 42 points at 13340 while the Nifty was down 16 points at 3816.

The market breadth was weak. Of the 2,613 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,423 stocks declined, 1,108 stocks advanced and 82 stocks ended unchanged. The sectoral indices were mixed. The BSE CD index, the BSE HC index, the BSE Metal index, the BSE Oil & Gas index and the BSE PSU index ended in positive territory. On the other hand the BSE Bankex, the BSE Auto index, the BSE CG index, the BSE FMCG index, the BSE IT index and the BSE Teck index exhibited weakness.

Among the losers Tata Motors dropped 3.12% at Rs836, Hero Honda shed 2.96% at Rs731, HLL dipped 2.80% at Rs218 and Wipro lost 2.03% at Rs555. HDFC Bank, Grasim, Reliance Energy, Bajaj Auto, ICICI Bank, SBI and Satyam Computers also closed in negative territory. Among the gainers Tata Steel surged 2.32% at Rs465, Maruti Udyog added 1.51% at Rs923, ONGC jumped 1.45% at Rs847, ITC gained 1.41% at Rs1,571 and Cipla was up 1.31% at Rs244. Infosys and ACC reported steady gains.

Carol Info at Rs56.60, Nelco at Rs114.85 and Texmaco at Rs1,094.35 hit the upper circuit while Sonata Software at Rs67.50 and Atlanta at Rs1,192.70 hit the lower circuit on the BSE.

Over 73.38 lakh Sobha Developers shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Reliance Communication (23.50 lakh shares), Sterling Biotech (24.26 lakh shares) and RPL (22.70 lakh shares).

Sobha Developers made its debut on the BSE. The stock touched an intra-day high of Rs1,179 before profit taking dragged it to a low of Rs918. The company had sold the shares at Rs640 in the initial public offering. The stock finally closed at Rs969. Over 73.38 lakh shares were traded on the BSE.