Sensex ends flat

In a spiritless trading session, the market displayed a range-bound trend with a select bout of buying and selling activities. After opening 45 points higher over its previous close of 18,646, the Sensex scaled higher to touch an intra-day high of 18,928. In mid session the market remained steady, however the sentiment turned bearish at the end of the session, and the index dipped to the day's low of 16,676. However, the Sensex on the back of selective pivotals in stocks ended on a flat note at 16,900, up by 54 points. The Nifty, however, advanced by six points to close at 4,938. Market breadth on the BSE was negative. Of the 2,816 stocks traded, 1,651 stocks declined, 1,112 stocks advanced and the remaining stocks ended unchanged.

Sectoral indices showed a mixed result. The BSE CD, the BSE FMCG index, the BSE HC index, the BSE Metal index, the BSE Oil & Gas index, the BSE PSU index and the BSE Teck index ended in the green, However, the BSE Bankex index, the BSE Auto index, the BSE CG index, the BSE IT index and the BSE Reality index exhibited weakness.

Among the gainers, HDFC Bank flared up 3.82% at Rs1,398, Hindalco moved up 2.86% at Rs168, Bharti Airtel jumped 2.11% at Rs965, Reliance gained 1.82% at Rs2,400, Ranbaxy scaled up by 1.73% at Rs424, Hindustan Utility was up 1.57% at Rs227 and Cipla advanced up 1.17% at Rs169. Maruti, ACC, Satyam Computer, HDFC, Infosys, ONGC and Grasim reported steady gains. However, M&M dropped 2.64% at Rs763, Bajaj Auto shed 2.16% at Rs2,518 and SBI dipped 1.60% at Rs1,803. Wipro, L&T, and Ambuja Cement were marginally down.

Over 4.72 crore RNRL shares changed hands on the BSE followed by IFCI (4.41 crore shares), Ispat (4.33 crore shares) and JP Hydro (3.69 crore shares).