Market rallies past 16100 after initial fall

The market witnessed a sharp pull-back after short covering by investors triggered a major rally in realty, power and capital goods stocks. Recovery in the other major Asian indices like Hang Seng and Straits Times followed by Nikkei, Kospi and Jakarta, which came off their early slump, also helped the market turn around from its early crash. The Sensex commenced 145 points lower at 15778 and plummeted below the 157800 mark on relentless selling to touch the day's low of 15739. However, resumption of buying in late morning trades saw the index drift into positive territory and gain strength thereafter. The Sensex breached the 16100 levels in noon trades to touch an intra-day high of 16168 before selective selling saw it slip below the 16100 mark. However, renewed buying towards the fag end ensured the Sensex moved past the 16100 mark and ended the session with a surge of 199 points at 16123. The Nifty rose 66 points to close at 4866.

Among the sectoral indices, the Realty Index led the surge with gains of 6.76% at 8,227 followed by the BSE Capital Goods Index (up 5.39% at 14,060) and the BSE Power Index (up 5.11% at 3273). However, only the BSE IT Index and the BSE Teck Index were the losers. Interestingly, the market breadth was positive. Of the 2,747 scrips traded on the BSE 2,110 stocks advanced, 605 stocks declined and 32 stocks ended unchanged.

Out of 30 Sensex stocks, 20 managed to end in the green while ten stocks ended with losses. Realty major DLF was the leading gainer and soared 10.11% at Rs749.10, while L&T advanced 6.90% at Rs2,917 and ACC moved up by 5.67% at Rs810.60. Among the power packs Torrent Power jumped 15.47% at Rs131.35, CESC shot up by 10.28% at Rs480.05, Suzlon added 8% at Rs269.90 and Tata Power was up at Rs1,187. Other major gainers like Ranbaxy rose 4.62% at Rs453.30, Bajaj Auto gained 4.59% at Rs2,076.10, BHEL scaled up 4.31% at Rs1,992.70 and NTPC was up 4.26% at Rs193.25. Among the laggards Maruti dropped 3.03% at Rs866.35, Satyam Computers shed 2.98% at Rs395.85, HDFC declined 2.66% at Rs2,501.40 and Cipla lost 2.54% at Rs195.80.

Over 2.81 crore RNRL shares changed hands on the BSE followed by ISPAT (1.69 crore shares), RPL (1.65 crore shares), Naga Fertilizers (0.83 crore shares) and IFCI (0.67 crore shares).