Sensex closes in positive territory

The market displayed a volatile trend with alternate bouts of buying and selling. The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 14 points and moved up initially to touch an intra-day high of 14003. However the sentiment turned bearish in the afternoon and the index dipped to the day's low of 13916. The Sensex recouped its losses on selective buying interest and ended the trading session at 13972, up 23 points. The Nifty was down a point at 4015. The market breadth was marginally positive on the BSE. Of the 2,656 stocks traded, 1,302 stocks advanced, 1,293 stocks declined and 61 stocks ended unchanged.

The sectoral indices were mixed. Among the gainers the BSE CG index was up 1.14%. The BSE Auto index, the BSE Bankex, the BSE CD index, the BSE Metal index, the BSE Oil & Gas index and the PSU index closed in positive territory. However, the BSE FMCG index, the BSE HC index, the BSE IT index and the BSE Teck index exhibited weakness.

Among the Sensex stocks Hindalco surged 3.21% at Rs183, NTPC gained 2.43% at Rs152, Reliance Industries jumped 1.61% at Rs1,301, Tata Motors added 1.32% at Rs892, HDFC Bank advanced 1.21% at Rs1,102 and BHEL was up 1.07% at Rs2,649. ICICI Bank, HLL, Satyam Computers and SBI reported steady gains. However, Hero Honda dropped 2.29% at Rs750, HDFC shed 1.51% at Rs1,566, Reliance Communication dropped 1.34% at Rs456, Bharti Airtel dipped 1.32% at Rs638 and ACC was down 1.03% at 1,133. Infosys, Ranbaxy, Wipro, Bajaj Auto and ITC closed with marginal losses.

Among the other stocks i-Gate Global surged 7.28% at Rs260, IndusInd Bank soared 6.02% at Rs48 and ABB advanced 5.70% at Rs3,889. Adani Enterprises, Bharat Electricals, Jaiprakash Associates and Kotak Bank gained around 4% each.

Gujarat Themis Biosyn at Rs14.27 and Cyber System at Rs12.41 hit the lower circuit on the BSE. On the other hand Adani Enterprises at Rs232.50 hit the upper circuit.

Over 39.08 lakh Ashok Leyland shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Sterlite Biotech (36.43 lakh shares), Hindalco (15.94 lakh shares), Parsvnath (15.66) and Lanco Infra (15.73 lakh shares).