Market ends slightly higher

Despite mixed signals from Asian markets, Sensex was 20 points up at 9035 at opening bell. While the mood remained upbeat on strong buying in information technology, teck and consumer durable stocks, the rally gathered more steam in afternoon trades as Sensex touched the high of 9112. However the market witnessed a steady decline towards the close to slip below 9000 mark to touch an intra-day low of 8978. Sensex finally closed the day with marginal gains of 27 points at 9043, while Nifty was 13 points up at 2789 on close.

The market breadth was negative. Of the 2,476 stocks traded on the BSE 1,073 stocks advanced, whereas 1,299 stocks declined. Hundred and four stocks ended unchanged. Among sectoral indices, BSE IT was the major gainer rising by 2.45% for the day followed by BSE Teck that added 1.71% and BSE CD that advanced 1.12%. BSE CG lost 0.93%, BSE Realty slipped 0.63% and BSE Bankex shed 0.56%.

Among major gainers, Wipro flared up 5.41% at Rs220.35, Infosys added 2.50% at Rs1208.20, Grasim Industries shot up by 2.43% at Rs1,373.75, Maruti Suzuki India flared up 2.37% at Rs631.90, HDFC moved up 2.08% at Rs1392.65, Mahindra & Mahindra advanced 1.97% at Rs290.15, Tata Consultancy Services scaled up 1.91% at Rs1,489.75 and Ranbaxy Laboratories surged 1.49% at Rs207.80. However, Hindalco Industries dropped 3.49% at Rs40.10, ACC slipped 2.43% at Rs549.20 and ICICI Bank shed 2.13% at Rs361.50.

Over 2.19 crore shares of Wire & Wireless India changed hands on BSE followed by Cals Refineries (99 lakh shares), Spice Telecommunications (86 lakh shares), Suzlon Energy (80 lakh shares) and Satyam Computer Services (79 lakh shares).