Market slips amid sharp volatility

Positive international indices failed to lift the sentiment in the domestic market as the Sensex drifted into negative territory after gains of 205 points in early trades. The sentiment turned extremely bearish in the afternoon as sustained selling in heavyweight, metal, banking and fast moving consumer goods stocks dragged the index below the 12400 mark to an intra-day low of 12390. The Sensex witnessed a swing of 512 points during the day. It ended the session with losses of 117 points at 12580, while the Nifty shed 29 points to close at 3627.

The market breadth was extremely negative. Of the 2,576 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,955 stocks declined, 578 stocks advanced and 43 stocks ended unchanged. All the sectoral indices ended in the red except the BSE HC Index and the BSE Auto Index. The BSE Metal Index dropped 2.80% at 7776 followed by the BSE Bankex (down 2.56% at 6191), the BSE FMCG Index (down 2.09% at 1664), the BSE IT Index (down 1.36% at 4895) and the BSE PSU Index (down 1.24% at 5400).

Out of the 30 Sensex stocks, only nine stocks managed to close in positive territory. Among the losers Gujarat Ambuja slumped 8.48% at Rs104, ACC tumbled 4.73% at Rs814, Wipro plunged 4.17% at Rs557, Ranbaxy declined 3.85% at Rs310, ICICI Bank dipped 2.94% at Rs827, SBI shed 2.69% at Rs965, Hindalco lost 2.49% at Rs127, ITC was down 2.34% at Rs158, HDFC Bank fell 2.14% at Rs916 and HLL was down 2.10% at Rs168. Cipla, however, bucked the downtrend and advanced 4.99% at Rs233. Reliance Communications gained 2.51% at Rs411 and Dr Reddy’s advanced 2.18% at Rs635. Larsen & Toubro, Reliance Energy, HDFC, Bharti Airtel and Hero Honda ended with steady gains.

Metal scrips continued to reel under sustained selling pressure. Nav Bharat Venture plummeted 8.21% at Rs85, Mahindra Ugine tumbled 6.59% at Rs89, Mukand dropped 6.15% at Rs79 and Jhagadia Copper shed 6.12% at Rs10. Jindal Steel, Southern Iron & Steel Company, Jindal Saw and Shah Alloys shed 5% each.

Over 1.85 crore IFCI shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Oriental (1.54 crore shares), Ashok Leyland (87 lakh shares), Gujarat Ambuja (32 lakh shares) and Reliance Communications (30 lakh shares).

Value-wise Reliance Industries registered a turnover of Rs181 crore on the BSE followed by Reliance Communications (Rs119 crore), Tech Mahindra (Rs80 crore), Century Textiles (Rs71 crore) and ACC (Rs70 crore).