Sensex gains 17 points

In a listless trading session, the market displayed a range-bound trend amid bouts of buying and selling. After opening one point above its last close at 14116, the Sensex moved down to touch an intra-day low of 14090. The index remained steady around the 14100 mark for a major portion of the session. The Sensex pared some of its gains on buying towards the close and ended the session at 14185, up 17 points for the day. However the Nifty declined five points to close at 4076.

The market breadth was positive. Of the 2,685 stocks traded, 1,600 stocks advanced, 1,023 stocks declined and 62 stocks ended unchanged. Among the sectoral indices, the BSE Bankex, the BSE CD, the BSE CG, the BSE HC, and the BSE Teck indices gained slightly. On the other hand, the BSE Auto, FMCG, Metal and OIL & Gas indices finished lower.

Among the front-line stocks, Reliance Communication led the upmove and soared 2.75% at Rs442. ICICI Bank surged 2.71% at Rs989, L&T advanced 2.16% at Rs1,533, NTPC jumped 1.12% at Rs140 and SBI added 1.12% at Rs1,223. Dr Reddy’s, Tata Motors, Satyam Computers, BHEL, Reliance Energy, Grasim, HLL, and Tata Steel ended in positive territory. However, HDFC Bank dropped 3.26% at Rs1,060, ONGC fell 2.75% at Rs895, TCS dropped 1.65% at Rs1,306, ITC tumbled 1.34% at Rs1.03 and Hindalco was down 1.03% at Rs168.

The stocks which touched new all-time highs on the BSE were Bhushan Steel at Rs417.65, Crisil at Rs2,485, SAIL at Rs101.90, Titan India at Rs987, Flex Industries at Rs2,899, Grasim Industries at Rs2,899 and Nirlon at Rs72.60.

Over 4.39 crore IFCI shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Reliance Natural Resources (2.15 crore shares), Himadri Futures (1.74 crore shares) and Harig Cranks (1.27 crore shares).