Profit taking trims Sensex gains

Even as major Asian indices like Nikkei, Hang Seng, Straits Times and Kospi managed to clock 1-2% gains, the Sensex failed to hold on to its early rally and closed way off its highs amid profit taking towards the closing hours. Riding on the back of yesterday's buoyant close and optimism in several international markets, the Sensex resumed 414 points higher at 16,541 and advanced sharply on sustained buying support to scale above 16,600 and touch an intra-day high of 16,683. After remaining above 16,500 for the entire first half, the Sensex came under the grip of profit taking and slipped below 16,100 to touch the day's low of 16,064, 59 points down. The Sensex finally ended the session with marginal gains of 5 points at 16,128, while the Nifty gained 6 points to close at 4,872.

Among the frontliners, Cipla soared 4.26% at Rs204, Grasim Industries rose 3.69% at Rs2,892, Reliance Energy added 3.19% at Rs1,328, ICICI Bank jumped 3.19% at Rs2.98, Bharti Airtel advanced 2.73% at Rs810.65, HDFC Bank gained 2.69% at Rs1,367.80, Ranbaxy moved up 2.44% at Rs464.35 and ONGC soared 2.02% at Rs1,014. However, Tisco dropped 6.42% at Rs766.45 while Hindalco declined 5.47% at Rs191.80 and DLF, SBI, Satyam Computers, Infosys, Tata Motors and Reliance Communications lost 3-4%.

The breadth of the market turned negative. Of the 2,763 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,441 stocks declined, 1,265 stocks advanced and 57 stocks ended unchanged. The BSE Realty Index was the lead performer and rose 1.23% at 8,327.75, while the BSE HC index gained 1.12% at 3,876.52.

Over 6.75 crore RECLTD shares changed hands on the BSE followed by RNRL (2.21 crore shares), ISPAT Industries (1.85 crore shares), RPL (1.21 crore shares) and Nagarjuna Fertilisers (1.03 crore shares).

Valuewise, RECLTD recorded a turnover of Rs825 crore followed by RNRL (Rs268 crore), RPL (Rs207 crore), RIL (Rs198 crore) and GSS America (Rs194 crore).