Volatile market ends buoyant

The market wiped out loss of more than 350 points incurred in the first half, after a strong bout of buying led by Reliance Communications, Tata Steel and DLF triggered wide-spread buying thereafter. In a highly volatile trading session, the Sensex resumed 251 points lower at 13,856 following weakness in Asian indices and crashed to the day's low of 13,732 on relentless selling. While the market was on a recovery path thereafter, the Sensex witnessed a sharp turnaround in afternoon as gains in heavy weights, metal, oil and realty propelled it to an intra-day high of 14,249. After gyrating 517 points during the intra-day trades, the Sensex gained 113 points to close at 14,220, while the Nifty ended 62 points higher at 4,253.

The market breadth ended positive. Of the 2,704 stocks traded on the BSE 1,390 stocks advanced, 1,247 stocks declined and 67 stocks ended unchanged. Except the BSE IT, BSE FMCG and BSE Bankex index, all other sectoral indices ended in positive territory. The BSE Metal index led the pack and gained 2.96% at 13,765 followed by the BSE Oil & Gas index (up 2.90% at 9,411.56) and the BSE Realty index (up 2.15% at 5,207.85).

Reliance Communications was the star performer among the heavyweights and the stock soared 7.20% at Rs509.05. Among the other major gainers, Tata Steel advanced 4.46% at Rs742.95, DLF jumped 4.19% at Rs458.30, Reliance Infrastructure rose 4.17% at Rs948.95, Tata Consultancy Services moved up by 4% at Rs877.75, Ranbaxy Laboratories advanced 3.92% at Rs545.40 and Bharti Airtel added 3.83% at Rs780. However, HDFC, Wipro, Cipla, Infosys and ITC inched lower.

Metal stocks were in demand and scaled higher. Gujarat NRE soared 7.62% at Rs136.30, JSW flared up 4.72% at Rs1,006.70, Tata Steel added 4.46% at Rs742.95, Welspun Gujarat gained 3.85% at Rs319.95 and SAIL was up 3.18% at Rs150.85. In the Oil pack, Aban Offshore zoomed 5% at Rs3,156.15, Essar Oil shot up by 4.98% at Rs214.85, HPCL rose 4.90% at Rs199.10 and Reliance Petroleum gained 4.03% at Rs199.10.

Over 4.88 crore Spice Telecom shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Reliance Natural Resources (1.39 crore shares), Reliance Petroleum (1.17 crore shares), Ispat Industries (1.08 crore shares) and IFCI (1.04 crore shares).