Market ends higher amid volatility

The market showed signs of easing off in the first half of the trading session as the Sensex dropped nearly 23 points, but a recovery in the afternoon and selective buying towards the close saw it end higher for the second consecutive session. Exhibiting sharp volatility in early trades, the Sensex resumed with a huge positive gap of 80 points at 14,301 and soon touched the intra-day high of 14,450 on sustained buying support. However, the market soon drifted into negative territory, as a sharp bout of selling pressure dragged the index to an intra-day low of 14,197. The Sensex once again notched up significant gains on renewed buying support before profit taking saw the Sensex shed some gains and end the session at 14,422, up 202 points. However, after a mixed outing Nifty ended higher at 4,316, up 63 points.

The market breadth was positive. Of the 2,698 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,482 stocks advanced, while 1,142 stocks declined and 74 stocks ended unchanged. Most of the sectoral indices ended with steady gains. However, the BSE Oil & Gas index gained 2.82% at 9,677 while the BSE IT index advanced by 2.12% at 4,181.

Select heavyweights helped the Sensex close at higher levels. Ambuja Cement rose 6% at Rs87.50, Wipro moved up 5.14% at Rs479.95, Reliance Industries advanced 4.87% at Rs2,239.25 and Cipla gained 4.36% at Rs216.65. Among the other major gainers, Satyam Computer Services jumped 3.28% at Rs459.80, Tata Motors notched up gains of 3.14% at Rs489.45 and HDFC gained 3.04% at Rs2,234.85. However, Reliance Communications dropped 2.61% at Rs490, Maruti Suzuki India tumbled 2.44% at Rs670, Hindalco shed 2.12% at Rs142.35 and Ranbaxy Laboratories lost 2.03% at Rs529.50. DLF, Hindustan Unilever, Bharti Airtel and HDFC Bank also ended in negative territory.

Select oil stocks rallied sharply. Gail India advanced 3.58% at Rs363.35, Reliance Petroleum added 1.85% at Rs173.55, Cairn India jumped 1.18% at Rs271.20 and ONGC gained 0.73% at Rs870.35.

Realty stocks declined sharply on sustained selling pressure. Phoenix Mill tanked 8.42% at Rs185, Puravankara dropped 7.34% at Rs170.35, Ansal Properties shed 7.07% at Rs78.85, Mahindra Life lost 6.01% at Rs476.10 and HDFC dipped 5.89% at Rs450.20.

Over 2.18 crore Chambal shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Nagarjuna Fertilisers (1.32 crore shares), Reliance Natural Resources (1.17 crore shares), Niraj Cement (1.09 crore shares) and IFCI (1crore shares).