Markets brave it out

After the 777-point fall, the highest-ever for the Dow Jones Industrial Average (Dow) as the $700-billion financial-rescue bill failed to get through the US’s house of representatives, the markets across the globe were expected to fall. In line, the Asian markets reported losses and witnessed high volatility for the major part of their trading session. In the early trades, the Sensex too seemed to take a leaf out of Dow’s book and plunged nearly 418 points on massive selling in front-line stocks, However sustained buying in heavyweights, banking and realty stocks lifted the market’s sentiment and the Sensex turned positive. Thereafter, the market witnessed choppy trades and with some range-bound moves the Sensex slipped in the red in the afternoon again. The market bounced back from its lows once again towards the close and touched the day’s high of 12,995 led by ICICI Bank, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), HDFC and Bharti Airtel. The Sensex finally ended the session with a gain of 265 points at 12,860. Nifty ended the session at 2,921 by adding 71 points.

The breadth of the market was neutral. Of the 2,671 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,283 stocks advanced, whereas 1,309 stocks declined. Seventy nine stocks ended unchanged. Among the sectoral indices the BSE Bankex advanced by 4.92% at 6,479 followed by the BSE CG (up 3.02% at 10,581) and BSE Realty (up 2.96% at 3,508). However, the BSE Metal and BSE FMCG closed in the negative territory.

Select blue chips notched up significant gains. ICICI Bank jumped 8.42% to Rs534.85, TCS rose 6.96% at Rs662.75, HDFC advanced 5.33% at Rs2,141.15, Bharti Airtel climbed 5.14% at Rs785.05, BHEL surged 5.07% at Rs1,586, State Bank of India scaled up 4.32% at Rs1,465, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) gained 4.16% at Rs2,442.85 and JP Associates added 4.12% at Rs111.10 while Maruti Suzuki India, NTPC and HDFC Bank ended with gains. Among the laggards Tata Steel tumbled by 4.43% at Rs425.60, Tata Motors dropped 3.27% at Rs344.20 and Ranbaxy Laboratories declined 3.17% at Rs247.75 while Grasim Industries, Tata Power, ITC, Hindustan Unilever, Sterlite Industries, Wipro and Reliance Energy ended with marginal losses.

Over 2.33 crore Reliance Natural Resources shares changed hands on the BSE followed by IFCI (1.27 crore shares), Suzlon Energy (0.89 crore shares), Chambal Fertilisers and Chemicals (80.34 lakh shares) and Ispat Industries (72.22 lakh shares).

Valuewise, Reliance Capital registered a turnover of Rs405 crore on the BSE followed by Reliance Industries (Rs356 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs336 crore), L&T (Rs206 crore) and Axis Bank (Rs203 crore).