Sensex ends flat amid sharp volatility

After gaining around 615 points in yesterday's session, the market witnessed a strong relief rally in early trades led by across-the-board buying. However, the Sensex witnessed widespread selling, as traders tried to book profits by mid morning trades and the index touched the early low of 13,764. While the market fluctuated sharply thereafter, a firm bullish sentiment came in noon trades as strong buying in heavyweights, metal and PSU stocks trimmed the loss and ended flat. The Sensex gyrated 283 points during intra-day trades and finally ended the session with a marginal loss of 38 points at 13,764, whereas the Nifty gained 5 points at 4,162.

The market breadth was positive. Of the 2,697 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,453 stocks advanced, 1,171 stocks declined and 73 stocks ended unchanged. With the exception of BSE Metal Index and BSE PSU Index, all other sectoral indices were down. BSE Auto Index, BSE IT Index and BSE FMCG Index lost over 0.60-1% each, while BSE Oil & Gas, Realty, Teck, Bankex, Power, CG, CD and HC Indexes declined and closed with steady loss.

Selling was rampant in several index heavyweights. Maruti triggered a major sell-off in the market and tumbled by 3.56% at Rs567.70. Among the other major losers, ITC dropped 2.34% at Rs179.20, Reliance Industries declined by 1.72% at Rs2,044, Jaiprakash Associates lost 1.33% at Rs171 and Tata Motors shed 1.25% at Rs399.50. However, Hindalco managed to report gains and jumped by 5.49% at Rs153.65, ACC advanced 3.12% at Rs552.80, Tata Steel added 3.11% at Rs698.95 and Reliance Infrastructure gained 2.35% at Rs855.10. Over 1.91 crore IFCI shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Reliance Natural Resources (1.69 crore shares), Ispat Industries (1.67 crore shares), Reliance Petroleum (0.92 crore shares) and Chambal Fertilisers (0.77 crore shares).