Auto stocks surge in a subdued market

The market failed to hold on to its early gains on profit bookings in most of the frontline stocks and the Sensex entered into negative territory by afternoon. Shrugging off the weak Asian markets, the Sensex took a cue from US markets and opened with a positive gap of 189 points. However, sustained selling thereafter pulled the market down with the index plunging deep into the red to touch an intra-day low of 18,884, down 244 points from the last close. The Sensex gyrated over 433 points during the intra-day trades. The Sensex managed to recover some losses towards the close, but ended the session 189 points down at 18,939, while the Nifty declined by 81 points to close at 5,618.

The market breadth was marginally weak. Of the 2,873 stocks traded on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), 1,497 stocks declined, 1,306 stocks advanced and 70 stocks ended unchanged. On sectoral front, BSE Oil & Gas index was down 2.29% at 11,918 and BSE Metal index slipped 2.12% at 16,976, while BSE CG index, BSE Realty index, BSE PSU index and BSE Bankex index were down 1% each. However, the BSE Auto index bucked the trend and gained 1.05%.

Among the major losers, Hindalco shed 3.66% at Rs184, Tata Steel declined 3.41% at Rs819, ACC fell 3.30% at Rs1,075 and Reliance Energy slipped 2.93% at Rs1,704. TCS dipped 2.11% at Rs976, DLF lost 2.05% at Rs880 and Reliance Industries slumped 1.96% at Rs2,786. Maruti Suzuki, however, gained 3.11% at Rs967, followed by Bajaj Auto up 2.82% at Rs2,728, BHEL added 1.93% at Rs2,725 and Ambuja Cement jumped 1.04% at Rs151. Tata Motors, ITC and HDFC ended the day in the positive territory.

Over 1.89 crore Reliance Natural Resources shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Ispat Industries (1.88 crore shares), Reliance Petroleum (1.46 crore shares), Tata Teleservices (1.24 crore shares) and Ashok Leyland (1.19 crore shares).

Valuewise, Mundra Ports registered a turnover of Rs324 crore on the BSE followed by Reliance Natural Resources (Rs302 crore), HDFC (Rs291 crore), Reliance Petroleum (Rs285 crore) and GMR Infrastructure (Rs221 crore)