Indices close flat

The market had a flat close as traders continued to book profits ahead of the expiry of October derivative contracts. After a cautious start at 18,728, above 235 points its previous close, the Sensex came under selling pressure and slipped into the red below the 18,300 mark amid weakness in several Asian indices to touch the day's low of 18,315, down 176 points. The market stabilised by afternoon and continued its northwards journey on healthy buying in heavyweights, consumer durables and metal stocks. The market remained choppy thereafter and moved in a range with a mixed bias. The strong optimism in frontline, metal, consumer durables, and capital good stocks saw the index breach the 18,800 mark and touch an intra-day high of 18,832, up 515 points from the day's low. However, profit bookings at the close saw the Sensex end the session with a marginal gain of 20 points at 18,513, while the Nifty added 22 points to close at 5,496.

The market breadth was positive. Of the 2,785 stocks traded on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), 1,558 stocks advanced, 1,173 stocks declined and 54 stocks ended unchanged. Among the sectoral indices, the CD gained 2.98% while the BSE Metal index, the BSE Realty index and the BSE CG index were up over 2% each. While, the BSE Auto index, the BSE IT index, the BSE Oil & Gas index and the BSE Teck index were marginally down.

Among the heavyweights, Reliance Energy gained 8.58% at Rs1,654, SBI soared 5.25% at Rs1,908, Tata Steel surged 2.23% at Rs915, Hindalco moved up by 2.22% at Rs189, HDFC Bank scaled up 2.20% at Rs1,506, L&T was up 2.16% at Rs3,403, NTPC advanced by 1.82% at Rs22 and Cipla gained 1.71% at Rs197. However, ONGC slipped 3.18% at Rs1,108, followed by Tata Motors, which was down 2.70% at Rs775. Infosys slumped by 2.07% at Rs1,845, Bharti Airtel shed 1.89% at Rs986 and M&M lost 1.85% at Rs760.

Over 2.75 crore Himachal Futuristic Communication shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Reliance Natural Resources (2.15 crore shares), Reliance Petroleum (1.98 crore shares), Power Grid Corporation (1.61 crore shares) and Tata Teleservices (1.38 crore shares).

Reliance Energy was the most actively traded counter with a turnover of Rs594 crore on the BSE followed by Reliance Petroleum (Rs369 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs287 crore), Reliance Communication (Rs284 crore) and Power Grid Corporation (Rs225 crore).