Sensex ends flat

In a spiritless trading session, the market displayed a range-bound trend with select bouts of buying and selling activities. After opening 42 points lower over its previous close of 15,032, the Sensex scaled lower to touch an intra-day low of 14,993. In mid session, the market remained steady, however the sentiment turned bullish at the end of the session and the index rose to the day's high of 15,280. However, the Sensex on the back of selective pivotals in the stocks ended on a flat note at 15,074, up 44 points. The Nifty however advanced by six points to close at 4,524. The market breadth was positive. Of the 2,785 stocks, 1,415 stocks rose, 1,277 stocks fell and the remaining stocks ended unchanged. Sectoral indices showed a mixed result. The BSE CD, BSE Auto index, BSE IT index, BSE Realty index, BSE Bankex index, BSE FMCG index, BSE HC index and BSE Metal index ended with gains, whereas BSE CG index, BSE Power index, BSE PSU index, BSE Oil & Gas index and BSE Teck index ended with losses. Among gainers, Sterlite Industries flared up 4.43% at Rs614, Tata Motors moved up 4.10% at Rs444.20, HDFC jumped 3.37% at Rs2,476.60, HDFC Bank gained 3.03% at Rs1,253.70, Grasim Industries scaled up by 2.49% at Rs2,089.35, Mahindra & Mahindra was up 2.48% at Rs575.95, Maruti Suzuki India gained 2.41% at Rs668.55 and Satyam Computer Services advanced up 2.25% at Rs416.55. DLF, NTPC, Infosys, Relilance Infra, JPAssociates and ITC reported steady gains. However, BHEL dropped 2.88% at Rs1,774.65, Bharti Airtel shed 2.25% at Rs850.15 and Ranbaxy Laboratories dipped 1.78% at Rs438.55. Hindustan Unilever, Wipro, and Tata Power were marginally down. Over 2.91 crore Reliance Natural Resources shares changed hands followed by Ispat Industries (1.40 crore shares), Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Ltd (1.18 crore shares) and Kaashyap Technologies (0.88 crore shares)