Profit taking trims Sensex gains

Even as major Asian indices like Nikkei, Hang Seng, Straits Times and Kospi managed to clock decent 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 Friday's buoyant close and optimism in several Asian markets, the Sensex resumed 108 points higher at 13,562 and advanced sharply on sustained buying support to scale above 13,700 and touch an intra-day high of 13,793. After remaining above 13,600 for the entire first half, the Sensex came under the grip of profit taking and slipped below 13,550 to touch the day's low of 13,476, 22 points above the last close of 13,454. The Sensex finally ended the session with steady gains of 72 points at 13,526, while Nifty gained 14 points to close at 4,030.

Among the front liners, JP associates soared 4.47% at Rs160.15, Mahindra & Mahindra rose 4.40% at Rs496.35, Maruti Suzuki added 4.34% at Rs574.35, Satyam Computer Services jumped 4.28% at Rs481.95, ITC advanced 3.98% at Rs177.60 and SBI gained 3.92% at Rs1,171.75, while Hindustan Unilever, ACC, Hindalco, DLF, Infosys and Wipro gained 2-3% each. However, Reliance Communications dropped 4.20% at Rs419.80, while Reliance Industries declined 3.38% at Rs2,028.15, BHEL lost 2.26% at Rs1,466.35 and Tata Motors lost 2.07% at Rs392.55.

The breadth of the market was positive. Of the 2,706 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,853 stocks advanced, 788 stocks declined and 65 stocks ended unchanged. On sectoral front, 11 out of 13 sectoral indices ended positive. The BSE FMCG was the lead performer and rose 2.75% at 1,993, while the BSE IT index gained 2.64% at 4,176.

FMCG stocks witness strong buying support. United Breweries shot up by 8.80% at Rs141, United Spirits scaled up 4.15% at Rs1,128.50, ITC added 3.98% at Rs177.60 and Dabur gained 3.37% at Rs81.20. Britannia and Tata Tea were up over 1% each.

Over 28.59 crore Spice Tele shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Reliance Natural Resources (2.63 crore shares), IFCI (2.05 crore shares), Reliance Petroleum (1.16 crore shares), Ispat Industries (1.01 crore shares) and Chambal Fertiliser (80.01 lakh shares).