Volatile but high

The market wiped out losses of over 102 points incurred in the first half after a strong bout of buying led by Reliance Infrastructure and Hindalco Industries triggered a wide spread buying. In a highly volatile trading session, the Sensex resumed 102 points lower at 9,632 following weakness in Asian indices. While the market was on a recovery path thereafter, the Sensex witnessed a sharp turnaround in afternoon as gains in heavyweights, power, oil & gas and Metal stocks propelled it to an intra-day high of 10,065. After gyrating 433 points during intra-day trades, the Sensex ended 230 points higher at 9,964, while Nifty finished 80 points up at 2,973.

The market breadth was positive. Of the 2,616 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,424 stocks declined whereas 1,124stocks advanced. Seventy five stocks ended unchanged. All the 13 sectoral indices advanced today. BSE Power led the pack gaining 4.43% at 1,702 followed by BSE Oil & Gas (up 3.38% at 5,817) and BSE Metal (up 3.18% at 4,993).

Reliance Infrastructure was the star performer among the heavyweights and the stock soared 10.92% at Rs560.90. Among the other major gainers, Hindalco Industries advanced 6.61% at Rs60.45, Reliance Communications jumped 5.53% at Rs228, Tata Consultancy Services rose 4.87% at Rs524.55, National Thermal Power Corporation moved up by 4.78% at Rs151.20, JP Associates advanced 4.65% at Rs87.70, Reliance Industries gained 3.95% at Rs1,217.85 and DLF added 3.60% at Rs280.90. However, Mahindra & Mahindra, ICICI Bank, Maruti Suzuki India, ONGC and Tata Motors inched lower.

Over 2.52 crore shares of Suzlon Energy changed hands on the BSE followed by GVK Power & Infrastructure (2.23 crore shares), Reliance Natural Resources (1.18 crore shares), HDIL (0.87 crore shares) and Tata Teleservices (0.79 crore shares).