IT stocks help Sensex bounce back

The market returned to stability by mid-noon trades and gradually picked up momentum towards the close amid healthy buying support in heavyweights, IT, tech and oil counters. After a cautious start at 16,641, 96 points below its previous close of 16,737, the index slipped deep into red after a disappointing 3% year-on-year growth in the index of industrial production (IIP), much below the consensus expectation of 5.8% year-on-year growth. The Sensex touched the day's low of 16,547, down 190 points. However, the rupee touching the 13-month low of Rs42.02 a dollar triggered a major rally in IT stocks and the index touched the intra-day high of 16,897, up 350 points from the day's low. The Sensex finally ended the session marginally below the 16,900 mark at 16,861, up 124 points, while the Nifty added 30 points to close at 5,013.

The breadth of the market was negative, with the losers outpacing the gainers in a ratio of 1.90:1. Of the 2,747 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,777 stocks declined, 920 stocks advanced and 50 stocks ended unchanged. Most of the sectoral indices closed with gains on BSE, except realty, Auto, CD and PSU indices. BSE IT index rose by 1.48% followed by the BSE FMCG index (up 1.11%), the BSE Teck index (up 1.03%) and the BSE Oil & Gas index (up 1.02%).

Heavyweights led the upsurge in the market. Ranbaxy Laboratories soared 5.27% at Rs494, Satyam Computer Services added 3.41% at Rs490, ITC shot up by 2.52% at Rs224, HDFC increased by 2.03% at Rs2,699, Reliance Communications vaulted 2.02% at Rs550. Select counters, however, finished on a weak note. Grasim shed 3.61% at Rs2,256, JP Associates dropped 1.95% at Rs246, ACC declined by 1.45% at Rs702 and DLF lost 1.35% at Rs622.

Over 6.11 crore Aishwarya Telecom shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Reliance Petroleum (1.78 crore shares), RNRL (1.74 crore shares), IFCI (1.33 crore shares) and Ispat Industries (1.22 crore shares).

Valuewise, Aishwarya Telecom registered a turnover of Rs558 crore on the BSE followed by Reliance Petroleum (Rs316 crore), Cairn India (Rs260 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs258 crore) and Reliance Industries (Rs214 crore).