Market ends steady amid sharp volatility

The stock market witnessed volatile moves and swung 102 points during the intra-day trades, as shares gyrated sharply between zones through the trading session. Taking its cue from the firm global indices, the Sensex started on a positive note at 15295 but failed to sustain its gains as a sharp bout of profit-taking pulled the index below the 15300 mark to an intra-day low of 15239. While the market remained lacklustre with a negative bias, the Sensex rolled back to the green by mid-noon trades on renewed buying support and surged to an intra-day high of 15341. However, a fresh round of profit-taking towards the fag end saw the Sensex pare its gains and end at 15311, up 39 points, while the Nifty added ten points to close at 4515.

The breadth of the market was positive. Of the 2,750 stocks traded on the BSE 1,219 stocks declined, 1,476 stocks advanced and 55 stocks remained unchanged. Among the sectoral indices, the BSE IT index dropped 1.01% at 4848 while the BSE FMCG index, the BSE HC index, the BSE CG index and the BSE Teck index also ended at lower levels. The BSE Reality index, the BSE Bankex and the BSE PSU index gained around 1% each.

Select heavyweights edged higher on decent buying support. Reliance Energy on favourable ruling from the Norwegian court rose 4.54% at Rs706, SBI jumped 3.83% at Rs1,614, Bajaj Auto advanced 3.71% at Rs2,255, Reliance Communication added 3.49% at Rs574, Ambuja Cement gained 3.41% at Rs133 and Hindalco gained 3.41% at Rs180.30. However, select front-line stocks came under selling pressure. Wipro was the major loser and dropped 2.32% at Rs500.70. Other draggers Satyam Computer declined 2.26% at Rs482, Hindustan Unilever dropped 2.22% at Rs198 and Ranbaxy shed 2.17% at Rs345.

Over 1.93 crore Bellary Steel shares changed hands on the BSE followed by IFCI (71.77 lakh shares), Sujana Metal (65.59 lakh shares), Naga Fertilizers (57.36 lakh shares) and RNRL (56.11 lakh shares).