Sensex slips amid volatility

The market was highly volatile during the day as stocks gyrated between the either sides of the zone throughout the session with Sensex witnessing an intra-day swing of 279 points. The market opened higher at 10,102 but pared the early gains, as investor sentiment turned cautious as Sensex neared its intra-day high of 10,173 points. Sustained selling thereafter in frontline, oil and banking stocks saw Sensex turn negative for the day. 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 9,894. Sensex closed the session at 9,928, down 172 points and Nifty was at 3039, down 38 points.

The market breadth was positive. Of the 2,616 stocks traded on the BSE 1,276 stocks advanced whereas 1,258 stocks fell. Eighty two stocks ended unchanged. Among sectoral indices, BSE Oil shed 3.02%, BSE Bankex declined 2.48% and BSE Metal was down 1.52%. However, BSE CD, BSE FMCG , BSE PSU and BSE Realty closed in the green.

Selective buying helped index overcome its losses. Tata Motors gained 4.57% at Rs187.50, DLF advanced 3.47% at Rs318 and Ranbaxy Laboratories added 2.16% at Rs222.05. ITC, Grasim Industries, Tata Power, ONGC, Larsen & Toubro and NTPC notched up steady gains.

Selling was evident in select heavyweights. ICICI Bank dropped 5.49% at Rs446.05, Reliance Industries declined 4.78% at Rs1,284.70, Mahindra & Mahindra tumbled 4.55% at Rs306.60, Maruti Suzuki India shed 3.79% at Rs528.70, HDFC Bank dipped 3.79% at Rs1019.75 and Reliance Infrastructure was down 3.01% at Rs601.20.

Over 3.32 crore shares of Unitech changed hands on the BSE followed by Suzlon Energy (2.53 crore shares), Reliance Natural Resources (2.30 crore shares), HDIL (1.27 crore shares) and Reliance Petroleum (1.24 crore shares).

Valuewise, Reliance Industries clocked a turnover of Rs254 crore on the BSE followed by DLF (Rs217 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs212 crore), HDIL (Rs212 crore) and Unitech (Rs158 crore).