Market gains, but closes off its high

After a listless start the market took a cue from the strength in the Asian markets and moved up on fresh buying in capital goods, cement and auto stocks. The Sensex surged in the afternoon and traded above the 13,000 mark as buying intensified in index heavyweights and touched the day's high of 13057. Despite Asian markets closing higher and reports of an 11% growth in the industrial production in the first nine months of the current fiscal, the Sensex slipped below 13000 on profit taking in front-line stocks towards the close. The index tumbled to touch an intra-day low of 12845 shaving off over 200 points from the day's high. The Sensex finally ended the session with moderate gains of 18 points at 12903, while the Nifty closed at 3735, up 17 points.

The breadth of the market was positive. Of the 2,613 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,540 stocks advanced, 1,017 stocks declined and 57 stocks ended unchanged. All the BSE indices were up except the BSE FMCG Index. The BSE CG Index advanced 1.67% at 8746 followed by the BSE Auto Index (up 1.12% at 4898) and the BSE HC Index (up 0.80% at 3490). However, the BSE FMCG Index closed in negative territory.

Select blue chip stocks notched up significant gains. Bharti Airtel rose 2.61% at Rs770, TCS advanced 2.15% at Rs1,238, L&T climbed 1.89% at Rs1,509, Cipla surged 1.64% at Rs233, ONGC gained 1.59% at Rs793, Wipro added 1.49% at Rs573, Maruti jumped 1.23% at Rs797, ICICI Bank advanced 1.18% at Rs870, Tata Motors gained 1.14% at Rs764 and HDFC was up 1.09% at Rs1,584. Among the laggards Gujarat Ambuja tumbled 4.32% at Rs105, ACC dropped 4.26% at Rs748, ITC slipped 3.47% at Rs149, HDFC Bank lost 2.99% at Rs951 and Grasim fell 2.65% at Rs2,014. Reliance Energy, Reliance Communications, SBI, Ranbaxy and Infosys ended with marginal losses.

Capital goods stocks were in the limelight. Triveni Engineering soared 8.25% at Rs53, Jyoti Structures jumped 8.11% at Rs173, Gammon India surged 4.54% at Rs315, Areva advanced 4.12% at Rs1,050 and Crompton Greaves gained 4.04% at Rs196. Punj Lloyds, Reliance Industrial Infrastructure, ABB, Praj Industries and Bharat Electricals were up 1-3% each. Among the auto and auto ancillary stocks, Tube Investment, Bharat Forge, TVS Motors, Amteck Auto, Ashok Leyland, MRF and Cummins India gained 1-4% each.

Over 1.24 crore Idea Celluar shares changed hands on the BSE followed by IDFC (41.94 lakh shares), ITC (35.79 lakh shares), India Cements (34.59 lakh shares) and Reliance Communications (23.40 lakh shares).

Value-wise Century Textiles registered a turnover of Rs120 crore on the BSE followed by Idea Celluar (Rs110 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs98 crore), Reliance Communications (Rs97 crore) and ACC (Rs68 crore).