Eleventh-hour buying saves grace

Weak global cues and negative breadth in yesterday's trades led the market open at a lower today. The Sensex was 524 points down at the opening bell and remained subdued, as investors booked profits after the recent gains. Oil & Gas and capital goods (CG) stocks took the major beating, but realty stocks bucked the downtrend on gains in Unitech and Housing Development and Infrastructure (HDIL). The index capitulated under selling pressure by afternoon and slipped to the day's low of 10,018. While the market fluctuated sharply thereafter, firm bullish sentiment and strong buying in heavyweights and realty stocks in late trades helped the Sensex erase most of its losses. The Sensex finally ended the session by shedding 2.11% or 228 points at 0,581. Nifty slipped by 69 points at 3,269.

The market breadth was negative. Of the 2,622 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,733 stocks declined whereas 833 stocks advanced. Fifty seven stocks ended unchanged. Most of the sectoral indices ended in the red. The BSE Oil & Gas dropped 5.57% at 6,827 followed by BSE CG (down 5.23% at 7,665), BSE IT (down 3.99% at 2,669) and BSE Auto (down 3.43% at 3,196). However, BSE Realty gained 5.15% at 2,813 and BSE FMCG was up 1.73% at 1,903.

Heavyweights led the fall in the Sensex. Hindalco Industries slipped by 12.15% at Rs69.75, Tata Motors slumped by 11.17% at Rs250.55, Tata Consultancy Services shed 8.64% at Rs495.20, Grasim Industries lost 8.05% at Rs1,371.75, Reliance Industries was down 8.03% at Rs1,397.25 and Larsen & Toubro (L&T) tumbled by 7.55% at Rs825.75. Among the gainers Reliance Communications jumped 9.80% at Rs258.90, DLF gained 8.25% at Rs324.90, Hindustan Unilever soared 7.22% at Rs247.90, HDFC rose by 5.17% at Rs1,801.15 and the State Bank of India (SBI) was up 3.13% at Rs1,543.90, while JP Associates, Sterlite Industries, Bharti Airtel and ITC ended with modest gains.

Over 1.21 crore IFCI shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Chambal Fertilisers and Chemicals (1.16 crore shares), Reliance Natural Resources (1.07 crore shares) and Suzlon Energy (0.96 crore shares).

Reliance Industries registered a turnover of Rs418 crore on the BSE followed by Reliance Capital (Rs258 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs239 crore), SBI (Rs212 crore) and L&T (Rs170 crore).