Market up amid lacklustre trades

The market gained 61 points during the day amid lacklustre trades. The sentiment was positive for the second consecutive session as the rupee appreciated to an 18-month high against the dollar and remained positive on expectations of renewed capital inflows. The Sensex rose over 1% in early trades on firm Asian markets, which were up on Bank of Japan’s decision not to raise interest rates. The market remained range-bound thereafter. In the afternoon, selling intensified in some of the front-line stocks that saw the Sensex shed its early gains and touch the day's low of 12675, down 120 points from the day's high. Selective buying in banking, pharma and cement stocks towards the close lifted the Sensex to an intra-day high of 12799. The Sensex finally closed with gains of 61 points at 12706. The Nifty added 19 points and closed at 3698.

The breadth of the market was positive on the BSE. Of the 2,635 stocks traded, 1,367 stocks advanced, 1,201 stocks declined and the remaining stocks ended unchanged. Except the BSE IT Index and the BSE Teck Index all the sectoral indices ended with gains. The BSE Bankex added 1.18% at 6291 and the BSE HC Index gained 1.13% at 3525. The BSE CG Index, the BSE Metal Index, the BSE PSU Index and the BSE Oil & Gas Index ended with marginal gains.

Among the gainers Ranbaxy surged 6.15% at Rs336, Reliance Energy gained 4.09% at Rs476, Grasim jumped 4.02% at Rs2,124, Gujarat Ambuja added 3.36% at Rs111, Hindalco advanced 3.30% at Rs133, HDFC Bank was up 2.97% at Rs954 and Satyam Computers advanced 2.84% at Rs446. However, BHEL dropped 1.70% at Rs2,044, Infosys shed 1.55% at Rs2,054, Wipro dipped 1.35% at Rs571 and Tata Steel declined 1.31% at Rs424. Hero Honda, ITC, NTPC, TCS, Bajaj Auto and ONGC closed with marginal losses.

Over 31.13 lakh Idea Cellular shares changed hands on the BSE followed by IDBI (26.97 lakh shares), ITC (25.27 lakh shares) and Orchid Chemicals (21.76 lakh shares).

Value-wise Reliance Communications registered a turnover of Rs85 crore on the BSE followed by Reliance Capital (Rs69 crore), Orchid Chemicals (Rs57 crore), SBI (Rs52 crore) and Reliance Industries (Rs52 crore).