Market ends upbeat

After opening flat, the market moved up with the Sensex gaining over 86 points in early trades on buying in heavyweight and information technology stocks. However selling at higher levels saw the index plunge deep into the red and touch the day's low of 12833, down 51 points. Stocks gyrated between positive and negative territories amid high volatility and the Sensex witnessed an intra-day swing of 171 points. The winding up of short positions in the derivatives contracts, as today was the last day of the derivatives expiry for the March series, helped the Sensex erase its losses and touch the day's high of 13004 towards the close. The Sensex ended the session with gains of 95 points at 12980. The Nifty ended the session at 3798, up 37 points.

The breadth of the market was positive. Of the 2,579 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,578 stocks advanced, 932 stocks declined and 69 stocks ended unchanged. Among the sectoral indices the BSE FMCG Index advanced 2.08% at 1712 followed by the BSE CD Index (up 1.45% at 3536) and the BSE CG Index (up 1.22% at 9000). However, the BSE Bankex, the BSE Auto Index and the BSE Metal Index closed in negative territory.

Select Sensex stocks notched up significant gains. TCS rose 3.83% at Rs1,247, Hero Honda advanced 3.62% at Rs680, HLL climbed 3.41% at Rs205, L&T surged 3.19% at Rs1,616, ITC scaled up 2.34% at Rs147, Gujarat Ambuja added 2.30% at Rs105, Ranbaxy jumped 2.08% at Rs345, Dr Reddy's advanced 1.66% at Rs705, Maruti Udyog gained 1.51% at Rs811 and NTPC was up 1.50% at Rs145. Among the laggards HDFC Bank tumbled 2.34% at Rs933, Bajaj Auto dropped 1.74% at Rs2,421 and Hindalco slipped 1.38% at Rs128. Grasim, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, BHEL and Infosys closed with marginal losses.

Fast moving consumer goods stocks were in the limelight. Marico soared 5.12% at Rs62 and United Breweries jumped 2.08% at Rs270. Colgate, Glaxo, Procter & Gamble and Godrej Consumer Products ended with marginal gains.

Over 45.09 lakh Idea Cellular shares changed hands on the BSE followed by SAIL (19.15 lakh shares), Gujarat Ambuja (18.11 lakh shares), Zee Entertainment (18.09 lakh shares) and Exide Industries (15.51 lakh shares).

Value-wise Infosys registered a turnover of Rs128 crore on the BSE followed by HDFC Bank (Rs126 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs114 crore), Tata Motors (Rs63 crore) and TCS (Rs50 crore).