Sensex slips despite record fall in inflation

The market remained choppy as investors continued to book profits on every rise. Stocks had rebounded yesterday, helped by good volumes and strong Asian markets. However, the inflation rate, which hit a record low at 4.28%, could not rescue the sliding index and the Sensex touched the day's low of 14442. Except consumer durable and pharma stocks most of the stocks witnessed selling pressure. The lack of buying interest kept the market subdued and the Sensex closed the session by shedding 32 points at 14467. The Nifty closed the session down 15 points at 4252.

The market breadth was neutral. Of the 2,640 stocks that traded on the BSE, 1,282 stocks declined, 1,272 stocks advanced and 86 stocks ended unchanged. Most of the sectoral indices closed with a little change. The BSE Oil & Gas index dropped 0.97% at 7594 followed by the BSE Metal index (down 0.69% at 10745) and the BSE IT index (down 0.59% at 4858).

Among the Sensex stocks, Reliance Energy was the leading gainer and soared 5.32% at Rs590, Hindalco advanced 1.89% at Rs170, NTPC jumped 1.73% at Rs153, HDFC shot up by 1.65% at Rs1,870, Hero Honda moved up 1.28% at Rs670 and HLL gained 1.24% at Rs192, while Dr Reddy's Lab, SBI, Barti Airtel and ICICI Bank closed with marginal gains. Among the laggards BHEL tumbled 2.80% at Rs1,440, Gujarat Ambuja shed 2.64% at Rs116, Reliance Industries declined by 1.68% at Rs1,704 and Tata Steel lost 1.55% at Rs599.

Over 1.09 crore Reliance Natural Resources shares changed hands on the BSE followed by IKF Technologies (99.55 lakh shares), IDBI (80.08 lakh shares), TCS (49.30 lakh shares) and IFCI (47.90 lakh shares).

TCS registered a turnover of Rs562 crore on the BSE followed by Time Technologies (Rs163 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs147 crore), Educomp (Rs144 crore) and SBI (Rs135 crore).