Slightly up amidst volatility

The stock market witnessed strong volatility, swinging 128 points during intra-day trades, as shares gyrated sharply between zones. Taking cue from mixed global indices, Sensex started on a positive note at 8473, but failed to sustain its gains, as a sharp bout of profit-taking pulled the index below 8400 mark to an intra-day low of 8373. While the market remained lacklustre with a negative bias, Sensex rolled back to the green by mid-noon trades on renewed buying support and surged to an intra-day high of 8501. However, a fresh round of profit-taking towards the fag end saw Sensex pare its gains and end at 8446, up only 19 points, while Nifty added 23 points to close at 2645.

The breadth of the market was negative. Of the 2,537 stocks traded on the BSE 1,440 stocks declined, whereas 993 stocks advanced. One hundred and four stocks remained unchanged. Among sectoral indices, BSE Bankex dropped 1.50%, while BSE CD, the BSE CG and BSE Power also ended at lower levels. BSE Metal, BSE Oil & Gas and BSE HC gained around 1-2% each.

Select heavyweights edged higher on decent buying support. Reliance Infrastructure rose 4.56% at Rs457.60, Grasim Industries jumped 3.99% at Rs1,416.40, Tata Consultancy Services advanced 3.57% at Rs461.05, JP Associates added 3.56% at Rs65.45, Hindalco Industries gained 3.35% at Rs38.55 and Sterlite Industries gained 3.11% at Rs245.40. However, select frontline stocks came under selling pressure. ICICI Bank was the major loser and dropped 4.08% at Rs284.30. HDFC declined 3.24% at Rs1,161.60, Bharat Heavy Electricals dropped 2.37% at Rs1,332.65 and State Bank of India shed 1.88% at Rs957.55.

Over 1.55 crore shares of Cals Refineries shares changed hands on BSE followed by ICICI Bank (72 lakh shares), Satyam Computer Services (69 lakh shares), Gateway Distriparks (62 lakh shares) and Tata Steel (58 lakh shares).