Losing spree continues

The market saw high volatility during the day, as stocks gyrated between either sides of the zone throughout the session, with the Sensex witnessing an intra-day swing of 510 points. The market opened higher, buoyed by overnight gains in the US markets. But the index pared early gains as investor sentiments turned cautious, as the Sensex neared its intra-day high of 9,236. Thereafter, sustained selling in frontline, capital goods and banking stocks saw the Sensex enter into negative territory. After displaying some range-bound moves, the market plunged deep into the red on heavy selling towards the close to touch the day's low of 8,727. The Sensex finally closed the session at 8,774, down 163 points. Nifty ended the day at 2,635, down 48 points.

Market breadth was negative. Of the 2,573 stocks traded on BSE 1,711 stocks declined, while 786 stocks advanced. Seventy six stocks ended unchanged. Of the 13 sectoral indices, BSE CG index shed 3.47%, BSE Bankex declined 2.86% and BSE Power was down 2.68%. However, BSE FMCG, BSE Auto and BSE CD index closed in the green.

Sustained selling led the index pare its gains. JP Associates lost 1.83% at Rs63.80, Hindalco Industries declined 5.19% at Rs50.20 and Reliance Communications lost 5.15% at Rs198.80. Grasim Industries, Larsen & Toubro, Reliance Infrastructure, HDFC, ICICI Bank, Satyam Computer Services and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd closed with a loss of 3-4% each. However, ITC, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Mahindra & Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki India and DLF closed with marginal gains.

Over 1.64 crore shares of Suzlon Energy changed hands on BSE followed by GVK Power & Infrastructure (1.10 crore shares), Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (90.59 lakh shares), SAIL (59.73 lakh shares) and Reliance Capital (58.40 lakh shares).