Market slips amid inflation woes

The northward journey of the Sensex was derailed on the last trading day of the week, as a sharp bout of selling in the afternoon saw the market end the day in negative territory. The Sensex touched a new high at 14724 adding over 72 points in early trades on the back of firm Asian markets. The subsequent selling saw the Sensex slip and touch an intra-day low of 14494. However, some buying towards the close saw the Sensex pare some losses and close the session at 14539, down 113 points. The Nifty shed 36 points at 4187.

The broader market was extremely negative. Of the 2,715 stocks traded on the BSE, 635 stocks advanced, 2,039 stocks declined and 41 stocks ended unchanged. All the sectoral indices ended in the red. The BSE Metal index shed 1.74% at 9114 followed by the BSE HC index (down 1.49% at 3843), the BSE CG index (down 1.36% at 9940) and the BSE Teck index (down 1.12% at 3899).

Among the laggards Satyam Computers slipped 3.54% at Rs469, ACC declined 2.98% at Rs1,035, Reliance Communications shed 2.75% at Rs476, Maruti Udyog dropped 2.26% at Rs941, L&T lost 2.09% at Rs1,716 and Gujarat Ambuja fell 1.94% at Rs139. However, select heavyweights attracted some buying support. NTPC gained 1.68% at Rs145, Bajaj Auto rose 1.29% at Rs3,047, Wipro jumped 1.14% at Rs642 and Tata Motors added 1.13% at Rs906. HDFC Bank, HDFC and ITC closed with marginal gains.

Select metal stocks witnessed considerable selling pressure. Sterling Industries dropped 4.37% at Rs459, Jindal Steel lost 4.11% at Rs2,420, JSW Steel declined 2.61% at Rs447, Sesa Goa slipped 2.44% at Rs1,830 and Jindal Stainless was down 2.15% at Rs121.

Over 45.04 lakh IDBI shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Reliance Petroleum (29.18 lakh shares), IDFC (25.74 lakh shares) and SAIL (23.87 lakh shares).

Reliance Industries topped the value list with a turnover of Rs110 crore on the BSE followed by Zee Telefilms (Rs96 crore), Reliance Communications (Rs85 crore), L&T (Rs81 crore) and SBI (Rs6