Sensex acts valiant but late

Weak global cues and negative breadth in yesterday's trades led the market open at a lower today. The Sensex was 373 points down at the opening and remained subdued, as investors booked profits after the recent gains. Realty and consumer durables stocks took the major beating. The index faltered under selling pressure by afternoon and slipped to the day's low of 8,316. While the market fluctuated sharply thereafter, firm bullish sentiment and strong buying in heavyweights and fast moving consumer goods stocks in late trades helped the benchmark index erase most of the losses. The Sensex finally ended the session by shedding 3.68% or 323 points at 8,451. Nifty slipped 81 points at 2,553.

The market breadth was negative. Of the 2,560 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,889 stocks declined whereas 601 stocks advanced. Seventy stocks ended unchanged. All the 13 sectoral indices ended in the red. BSE Realty dropped 8.30% followed by BSE CD (down 4.95%), BSE Oil & Gas (down 4.64%), BSE Bankex (down 4.32%), BSE Metal (down 4.18%) and BSE Auto (down 4.14%).

Heavyweights led the fall in the Sensex. DLF slipped 8.56% at Rs205.20, Reliance Communications slumped by 8.32% at Rs182.25, Sterlite Industries shed 7.96% at Rs200.50, ICICI Bank lost 7.87% at Rs320.35 and HDFC Bank was down 7.30% at Rs822.25. Among the laggards JP Associates moved down 6.70% at Rs59.55, Reliance Industries lost 6.66% at Rs1,058.60, Maruti Suzuki India declined 6.52% at Rs482.85, Tata Motors was down by 6.47% at Rs126.45 and Tata Power was down 6.39% at Rs633.90, while ACC, National Thermal Power Corporation, State Bank of India, Ranbaxy Laboratories and Hindustan Unilever Ltd ended with modest gains.

Over 1.78 crore shares of GVK Power & Infrastructure changed hands on the BSE followed by Suzlon Energy (0.89 crore shares), Reliance Petroleum Ltd (0.86 crore shares), Reliance Natural Resources Ltd (0.72 crore shares) and HDIL (0.66 crore shares).