Market gains amid volatility

The market ended firm above 14100 on strong gains in metal, capital goods, consumer durables and information technology stocks. The market held firm above the 14100 level for almost the entire trading session as strong US and Asian markets created a perfect platform for the bulls to pursue buying. Undeterred by the slowdown in foreign institutional investor inflows, the Sensex resumed 54 points higher at 14110 and advanced further on substantial buying support. Buying in heavyweight, capital goods, metal, information technology and oil stocks saw the index touch an intra-day high of 14202 amid considerable volatility. The Sensex finally wrapped up the session with gains of 73 points at 14130 while the Nifty closed at 4078, up 26 points.

The market breadth was positive. Of the 2,717 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,764 stocks advanced, 912 stocks declined and 41 stocks ended unchanged. All the sectoral indices ended in positive territory. The BSE Metal index was the major gainer and soared 2.67% followed by the BSE CG index (up 1.51%), the BSE CD index (up 1.19%) and the BSE HC index (up 0.96%).

Front-line stocks once again led the rally. Tata Steel was in the forefront and gained 3.92% at Rs486. Among the other major gainers Ranbaxy surged 2.26% at Rs430, L&T advanced 2.19% at Rs1,499, Gujarat Ambuja added 1.84% at Rs144, Reliance Industries was up 1.83% at Rs1,365 and ACC jumped 1.34% at Rs1,084. Cipla, Satyam Computers, HLL, Infosys and Hindalco notched up marginal gains. However Maruti Udyog was down 1.62% at Rs906 while BHEL shed 1.57% at Rs2,222.

Metal stocks witnessed strong buying support. SAIL rallied sharply by 10.15% at Rs100, Jindal Saw vaulted 9.35% at Rs438, Jindal Steel was up 2.90% at Rs2,227 and Hindustan Zinc gained 2.31% at Rs825.

Over 83.18 lakh SAIL shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Cairn India (39.24 lakh shares), Ispat Industries (36.89 lakh shares), IDBI (29.95 lakh shares) and Dabur India (28.20 lakh shares).

Value-wise Reliance Industries registered a turnover of Rs165 crore on the BSE followed by TCS (Rs142 crore), SAIL (Rs80 crore), BHEL (Rs75 crore) and Reliance Communication (Rs70 crore).