Market drops 87 points on weak global cues

The market remained flat to subdued today on the back of weak global cues, but fared better than the Asian markets. After yesterday's loss of 144 points, the Sensex resumed 182 points lower at 19,603 but recovered by mid-morning trades. The major contributors to this recovery were PSU oil refineries and oil marketing companies, which flared up on expectation of better gross refinery margins in the future. However, selling in select frontline stocks saw the Sensex zigzag between positive and negative territory for the better part of the day. The Sensex finally wrapped up the session at 19,698, down 87 points, while the Nifty shed five points and closed at 5,907.

The market breadth was positive. Of the 2,865 stocks traded on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) 1,909 stocks advanced, 912 stocks declined and 44 stocks ended unchanged. Among the sectoral indices the BSE FMCG index flared up by 4.31%, the BSE CD index surged 2.61%, the BSE Oil & Gas index added 1.33% and the BSE Auto index gained 0.66%. Other sectoral indices were down around 0.5-1% each.

Among the Sensex stocks ITC shot up by 8.17% at Rs205. Among the other gainers, Grasim advanced by 5.87% at Rs3,831, Dr Reddy's Lab moved up by 3.39% at Rs620, M&M added 1.88% at Rs733, Maruti Suzuki scaled up by 1.35% at Rs1,049 and Bharti Airtel jumped 1.28% at Rs912. Select index stocks witnessed selling pressure. Hindalco was the major loser and dropped 5.52% at Rs204, L&T slipped 2.88% at Rs4,376, Ranbaxy was down 2.82% at Rs412, and ICICI Bank fell by 2.33% at Rs1,219.

FMCG stocks witnessed buying support. Tata Tea scaled up by 4.24% at Rs796, Dabur India jumped by 3.66% at Rs110, Godrej Consumers added 3.02% at Rs133, Nestle gained 2.77% at Rs1,376 and Bata India was up 2.43% at Rs231.

Over 3.37 crore Essar Oil shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Nagarjuna Fertilisers (2.43 crore shares), Facor Steel (1.80 crore shares), Essar Steel (1.74 crore shares) and Manglore Refinery (1.73 crore shares).

Essar Oil was the most actively traded counter on the BSE and registered a turnover of Rs635 crore followed by Reliance Petroleum (Rs346 crore), Manglore Refinery (Rs236 crore), Reliance Natural Resources (Rs213 crore), and Nagrjuna Fertilisers (Rs193 crore).