Market dips amid substantial volatility

The market was extremely choppy during intra-day trades as stocks gyrated between zones amid strong volatile moves. After opening slightly below its previous close at 13651, the Sensex moved up on sustained buying support to touch the day's high of 13748, up 96 points. Though the index remained firm above the 13700 mark in the first half of the trading session, it slipped sharply in the afternoon on hectic selling and tumbled to an intra-day low of 13493. Buying in select counters saw the Sensex erase some of its losses towards the close and end the day with losses of 86 points at 13566. The Nifty also witnessed volatility and shed 22 points to close at 3911.

The breadth of the market was negative. Of the 2,704 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,382 stocks declined, 1,273 stocks advanced and 49 stocks ended unchanged. The BSE CG index shed 1.35%. The BSE Auto index, the BSE Bankex, the BSE HC index, the BSE IT index, the BSE Metal index, the BSE PSU index and the BSE Teck index ended with marginal losses. However, the BSE CD index, the BSE Oil & Gas index and the BSE FMCG index finished in positive territory.

Among the losers Satyam shed 3.83% at Rs468, SBI lost 3.17% at Rs1,175, Reliance Communication declined 2.84% at Rs423, HDFC dipped 2.10% at Rs1,561 and Larsen & Toubro was down 2.04% at Rs1,431. Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Dr Reddy’s, Cipla, and HDFC Bank also closed in negative territory. However, Gujarat Ambuja gained 2.12% at Rs140. ONGC, TCS, ICICI Bank, Grasim, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Industries, Wipro and Bajaj Auto ended with steady gains.

Select consumer goods stocks came under selling pressure. Jyoti Structure, Alstom Project, Crompton Greaves, Larsen & Toubro, Praj Industries, Siemens, Areva and Astra Microwave were down 1-4% each.

Best & Crompton at Rs49.45, BNK Capital at Rs71.15, GE Capital at Rs186.65, ICI India at Rs449, Sagar Cement at Rs153.75, Borosil Glass at Rs380.20, Modern India at Rs242.90, Simplex Trading at Rs109.90 and Shivaji Securities of India at Rs111.35 touched new all-time highs.

Over 3.26 crore shares of Cairns India changed hands on the BSE while over 6.79 crore of shares were traded on the NSE after being listed today. The company had sold shares at Rs160 each in the IPO. The share touched a high of Rs155 and a low of Rs129. The stock closed at Rs138.

Over 2.30 crore Gujarat Ambuja shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Pentium Infratech (1.02 crore shares), Harig Cranks (97.45 lakh shares), Pyramid Saimira (91.65 lakh shares) and Vishal Export (85.91 lakh shares).

Value-wise Cairns India registered a turnover of Rs445.55 crore on the BSE followed by Gujarat Ambuja (Rs315.48 crore), Infosys (Rs82.93 crore) and SBI (Rs68.93 crore).