Market ends flat amid volatility

The market was highly volatile as stocks gyrated between zones throughout the trading session, with the index witnessing an intra-day swing of 303 points. In initial trades, on the back of a firm global indices, the Sensex began on a positive note at 15,806, 56 points above its previous close and rallied sharply above the 16,000 level to touch an intra-day high of 16,003. Steady to firm selling pressure thereafter saw the index plunge deep in red to slip below the 15,700 mark and touch a low of 15,699. Although the Sensex managed to erase most of its losses on buying in most of the heavyweights, it still ended 82 points up at 15,833. The Nifty nearly ended flat at 4,772.

The breadth of the market was negative. Of the 2,687 stocks traded on the BSE 1,395 stocks declined, 1,235 stocks advanced and 57 stocks ended unchanged.

Among the sectoral indices, the BSE IT index rose 3.31% at 3,765, while the BSE Oil & Gas index, the BSE FMCG index, the BSE HC index, the BSE Metal index and the BSE Realty index ended with modest gains. The BSE CG & Power were the biggest losers and dropped by 2% each.

Selective buying helped the index overcome its losses. Satyam Computer flared up 5.11% at Rs428, Wipro advanced 5.04% at Rs435, TCS rose 4.13% at Rs885.95 and HUL added 3.20% at Rs243.35. Infosys, Reliance Industries, Tata Steel, Ambuja Cement, ACC and ONGC performed with steady gains.

Selling was evident in select heavyweight counters. BHEL dropped 5.27% at Rs1,754.95, Mahindra & Mahindra declined 3.38% at Rs643.75, Reliance Energy tumbled 3.32% at Rs1,189.45, Maruti Suzuki shed 2.95% at Rs788.30, Grasim dipped 2.15% at Rs2,560, Tata Motors moved down by 1.43% at Rs628.70, HDFC moved down by 1.11% at Rs513.40 and Reliance Communications 1.09% at Rs510.

BSE Power stocks dropped sharply. Suzlon Energy dipped 4.68% at Rs272.10, ABB dropped 4.36% at Rs1,138.55, Areva declined by 3.57% at Rs1,463 and GMR infra lost 2.95% at Rs143. Torrent Pharma, Crompton and Tata power scaled down 2% each.

Over 1.80 crore IB Securties shares changed hands on the BSE followed by RNRL (1.40 crore shares), Ispat Industries (1.33 crore shares), RPL (1.17 crore shares) and Gammon Infra (1.05 crore shares)