Sensex sheds 76 points in choppy trade

The market bounced back in late trade as banking and auto stocks jumped amidst volatile trade. State Bank of India surged. Reliance Industries came off lower level. Realty, capital goods, power stocks declined. The market breadth was weak. BSE Mid Cap and Small Cap indices underperformed Sensex. Asian markets were mixed. Chinese stocks declined sharply. European markets were mixed.

The Sensex ended down 76.30 points or 0.41% at 18,526.32. Sensex hit a low of 18,182.83 in afternoon trade. At day’s low of 18,182.83, Sensex had lost 419.79 points. Sensex had surged to a high of 18,744.55 at the onset of the trading session. At day’s high of 18,744.55 Sensex gained 141.93 points.

The S&P CNX Nifty ended 41.7 points or 0.75% lower at 5,519.35.

The market breadth was weak. On BSE, 780 stocks advanced, while 1,963 stocks declined and 34 stocks were unchanged. 17 out of 30 stocks from the Sensex pack were in green.

The BSE Mid-Cap index declined 1.55% to 8,090.84 and the BSE Small-Cap index was down 1.99% to 10,060.87. Both these indices underperformed Sensex.

BSE Auto index (up 0.16% to 5,179.16), BSE Bankex (up 1.75% to 10,406.24), BSE Health Care index (down 0.08% to 3,810.63) and, BSE Oil & Gas index (down 0.33% to 11,692.07) outperformed Sensex. BSE FMCG index was flat at 2,103.72, outperforming Sensex

BSE Capital Goods index (down 2.53% to 18,815.18), BSE IT index (down 0.7% to 3,959.90), BSE Metal index (down 1.28% to 16,045.12), BSE Power index (down 2.25% to 4,151.07) and BSE Realty (down 4.99% to 9,457.37) underperformed Sensex.

Nifty November 2007 futures were at Rs 5600, at a huge premium of 80.65 points as compared to spot closing of 5519.35.

NSE’s futures & options (F&O) segment turnover was Rs 71,149.36 crore, which was higher than Rs 70,758.86 crore on Wednesday, 21 November 2007.

BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 6976 crore compared to Wednesday (21 November 2007)'s Rs 7,952.29 crore.

Index heavyweight and India’s largest private sector firm by market capitalisation Reliance Industries gained 0.25% to Rs 2,728.80, off session's low of Rs 2,666.80.

Banking stocks surged in late trade. State Bank of India (up 4.04% to Rs 2,241.80), ICICI Bank (up 2.16% to Rs 1,126.90), HDFC Bank (up 0.7% to Rs 1,594.04) edged higher.

Auto stocks also gained. Maruti Suzuki India (up 1.65% to Rs 966.75), Bajaj Auto (up 2.08% to Rs 2,472.55), Tata Motors (up 0.8% to Rs 692), Mahindra & Mahindra (up 0.49% to Rs 710.65) edged higher.

Realty stocks were major losers. Unitech (down 8.67% to Rs 328.20), DLF (down 5.49% to Rs 822.75), Indiabulls Real Estate (down 2.02% to Rs 602.85) edged lower.

Capital goods stocks declined. Larsen & Toubro (down 4.06% to Rs 3,941.90), Suzlon Energy (down 2.51% to Rs 1,857.20) edged lower.

India's biggest power equipment maker in terms of revenue Bharat Heavy Electricals declined 0.04% to Rs 2,485.10. It recovered from session’ low of Rs 2,380. It said today that it had received a contract worth Rs 2108 crore ($535 million) for steam generators and steam turbines in Jharkhand.

Power stocks declined. Tata Power Company (down 1.23% to Rs 1,145), Reliance Energy (down 5.18% to Rs 1,605.10), NTPC (down 4.99% to Rs 227.55) edged lower.

India’s second largest cement producer by sales ACC rose 2.21% to Rs 1,103.30.

India's largest oil exploration firm by sales ONGC declined 3.61% to Rs 1,149.55.

Ranbaxy Laboratories, India's largest drug maker by sales declined 1.4% to Rs 393. The company said on Wednesday, 21 November 2007, it had approval from Canadian authorities to manufacture and market tamsulosin hydrochloride capsules. Meanwhile, as per reports Ranbaxy Laboratories has reached an out-of-court settlement to market the generic copy of an innovator drug worth over $1 billion in the US.

Ispat Industries declined 7.98% to Rs 99.65 and was the biggest loser from A group of shares. Corporation Bank (down 7.93% to Rs 407.30), HTMT Global Solutions (down 6.89% to Rs 460), Jindal Saw (down 5.79% to Rs 745.65) and GE Shipping company (down 5.71% to Rs 445.70) edged lower.

Reliance Petroleum rose 2.68% to Rs 208.90 and clocked the highest volume of 2.46 crore shares on BSE. Reliance Natural Resources declined 1.04% to Rs 150.25 and clocked the second highest volume of 2.16 crore shares. Ispat Industries grossed the third highest volume of 1.73 crore. Tata Teleservices Maharashtra declined 2.27% to Rs 44 and clocked the fourth highest volume of 1.63 crore shares. IFCI declined 0.17% to Rs 86.40 and clocked the fifth highest volume of 1.23 crore shares on BSE.

Reliance Petroleum clocked the highest turnover of Rs 504.45 crore on BSE. Reliance Natural Resources (Rs 311.58 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs 288.65 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs 283.01 crore) and Larsen & Toubro (Rs 238.80 crore) were other turnover toppers on BSE in that order.

European markets were trading mixed. France’s CAC 40 (up 0.41% to 5,403.92) and UK’s FTSE 100 (up 0.35% to 6,092) edged higher. However, Germany’s DAX (down 0.2% to 7,503.01) edged lower.

China's Shanghai Composite index lost 4.41% at 4,984.16. Other Asian markets were mixed. Japan's Nikkei (up 0.34% at 14,888.78), and Taiwan Weighted (up 0.18% at 8,499.37) rose. However, South Korea's Seoul Composite (down 0.44% at 1,799.02) and Singapore's Straits Times (down 1.03% at 3,312.88), Hong Kong's Hang Seng (down 2.3% at 26,004.92) declined.

US stocks fell to the lowest in three-months on Wednesday, 21 November 2007 following growing unease over the economic outlook and weakening credit markets. The Dow Jones industrial Average ended the day with a loss of 211 points at 12,799. The Nasdaq Composite index slipped 34 points at 2,562. S&P 500 lost 22.9 points at 1,416.

Crude oil traded near $97 a barrel in New York after falling from a record yesterday, 21 November 2007 amid signs of slowing demand growth in the US, the world's largest energy consumer. Crude oil for January delivery was at $97.44 a barrel, up 15 cents, in after-hours electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange in Singapore.