Market ends choppy, drops 70 points

The market resumed in the red, tracking weak global cues, but quickly recovered on bargain hunting after Asian markets paired losses. The sustained buying in front-line, technology and telecom stocks helped the Sensex to touch the day's high of 14363. However, the Sensex lost its momentum and slipped into the red again as investor confidence waned. The index majors ITC and HLL led the slump and the Sensex touched the intra-day low of 14139. Although the Sensex managed to curtail some losses, but, heavy blow came towards the close, as selling intensified in front-line stocks, which saw the Sensex end the session in negative territory at 14186, down 70 points. The Nifty closed the session at 4180 by shedding 19 points.

The market breadth was weak as the losers outpaced the gainers in a ratio of 1.38:1. Of the 2,574 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,456 stocks declined, 1,043 stocks advanced and 75 stocks ended unchanged. Except the BSE IT index, the BSE Metal index and the BSE Tech index all the sectoral indices closed in the negative territory. The BSE FMCG index dropped 1.66% followed by the BSE Auto index (down 1.16%), the BSE Bankex (down 1.09%) and the BSE Oil & Gas index (down 1.01%).

Most of the index heavyweights witnessed a correction. Among auto majors Bajaj Auto tumbled by 2.84% at Rs2155, Hero Honda dropped 2.30% at Rs697, Maruti Udyog slipped 2.10% at Rs761 and Tata Motors lost 1.41% at Rs677. Among the other major losers ACC slumped by 2.24% at Rs804, ITC slipped by 2.08% at Rs155, SBI shed 2% at Rs1,360, HLL lost 1.95% at Rs191, HDFC Bank fell by 1.53% at Rs1,109 and L&T crumbled by 1.19% at Rs1,897. The other front-line stocks lost around 1% each. Select counters, however, bucked the downtrend and ended with gains. Satyam advanced by 3.40% at Rs481, Hindalco added 2.96% at Rs153 and Wipro moved up by 2.52% at Rs545 while Infosys, Reliance Communication and TCS ended with modest gains.

FMCG stocks dropped sharply. Nirma crumbled by 3.33% at Rs191, Radico Khaitan lost 2.83% at Rs140, Ruchi Soya shed 2.58% at Rs396 and Eveready Industries declined by 2.42% at Rs51. Among the auto stocks, Denso India, Balkrishna Industries, Amtek India, Cummins India, Subros were down 2-5% each.

Over 2.52 crore IFCI shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Reliance Natural Resources (85.60 lakh shares), GV Films (64.18 lakh shares), SREI Infrastructures (61.52 lakh shares) and Nitin Fire Protections (46.91 lakh shares).

Reliance Communication was the most actively traded counter on the BSE and registered a turnover of Rs211 crore followed by Nitin Fire Protections (Rs207 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs158 crore), IFCI (Rs125 crore) and SBI (Rs121 crore).