IT stocks carry the day

While selling pressure saw most other stocks slip from higher levels, information technology (IT) stocks held on to their gains to end firm.
Market recovered most of the day’s losses towards the close of the session, after shedding 59 points in early trades from the previous day's close of 10818.

Tracking weak global indices, the Sensex opened marginally above its previous close. The mood remained bearish and the market slipped on profit booking in index pivotals, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) and consumer durable (CD) stocks. The market once again witnessed selling pressure and the Sensex touched the day's low of 10759 by afternoon amid a choppy session. However, the index recovered shrugging off the weakness on substantial buying in IT, metal and realty stocks towards the close and touched the day’s high of 11203. The Sensex finally closed at 11135, up 317 points, while Nifty ended 93 points down at 3424.

The market breadth was positive. Of the 2,600 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,441 stocks advanced, 1,056 stocks declined and 103 stocks ended unchanged. Of the 13 sectoral indices, BSE IT (index of IT shares) flared up by 5.22% followed by BSE Metal (up 5.20%), BSE Realty (up 4.21%) and BSE Auto (up 3.92%). Other indices were up 1-3% each. The BSE CD was the only index to end lower.

Among the Sensex stocks, Wipro was the leading gainer and its stock price soared by 13.62% at Rs320. Among other stocks, Tata Steel advanced 10.35% at Rs266.10, Maruti Suzuki India jumped 7.92% at Rs814, while ICICI Bank, Grasim Industries, Sterlite Industries, Reliance Infrastructure, Tata Motors, Larsen & Toubro and Infosys Technologies closed with sharp gains of 5-7%. Among laggards, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries slipped 0.49% at Rs1,174.50 and Hindustan Unilever shed 0.31% at Rs240.25.

Over 3.58 crore shares of Unitech changed hands on the BSE followed by Cals Refineries (2.47 crore shares), Housing Development and Infrastructure (1.55 crore shares), Suzlon Energy (1.54 crore shares) and Reliance Natural Resources (1.51 crore shares).