Sensex exhibits resilience

The Sensex began the trading session with a positive gap of 52 points at 13685 and touched an intra-day high of 13723 amid considerable volatility in early trades. However the market slipped and in the first half of the session exhibited a range-bound trend with alternate bouts of buying and selling. A sharp bout of selling towards the close saw the Sensex slip into the red and touch a low of 13384, but renewed buying at lower levels in several front-line stocks saw the index erase its losses and end the session with gains of 17 points at 13650. The Nifty advanced three points and closed at 3942. The breadth of the market was negative. Of the 2,593 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,227 stocks advanced, 1,319 stocks declined and 47 stocks ended unchanged.

The sectoral indices were mixed. The BSE Metal index, the BSE FMCG index, the BSE Bankex, the BSE PSU index, the BSE Auto index and the BSE HC index ended in positive territory. On the other hand the BSE Teck index, the BSE CD index, the BSE IT index, the BSE Oil & Gas index and the BSE CG index exhibited weakness.

Among the gainers Gujarat Ambuja surged 3.83% at Rs128, ACC gained 3.30% at Rs946, Grasim jumped 3.08% at Rs2,341, Tata Motors added 3.07% at Rs840, SBI advanced 2.87% at Rs1,089, Satyam Computers was up 2.87% at Rs461, ITC advanced 2.59% at Rs170 and Tata Steel was up 2.29% at Rs470. Dr Reddy's, Maruti Udyog and Hindalco closed with steady gains. However, Bharti Airtel dropped 3.13% at Rs732, Reliance Communications shed 1.49% at Rs426 and Wipro dipped 1.48% at Rs614. Ranbaxy, L&T, Bajaj Auto, Infosys, BHEL, HDFC Bank and Reliance Industries closed with marginal losses.

Over 1.17 crore Power Finance Corporation shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Reliance Communications (32.93 lakh shares), IDBI (28.66 lakh shares) and Rolta India (23.07 lakh shares).

Value-wise Reliance Industries registered a turnover of Rs235 crore on the BSE followed by Reliance Communications (Rs138 crore) and Power Finance Corporation (Rs130 crore).