Bulls and bears for a tie

The Sensex opened higher today tracking firm global cues. It gained some momentum in mid morning trades and the high of the day was 15046. After exhibiting some volatile moves, the index slipped into the red on heavy selling in banking and information technology stocks. The day's low was 14734, down 141 points from its previous close. Resumption of buying in afternoon saw the Sensex move into positive territory. The buying interest somewhat weekend in last hours and the Sensex closed on a flat note down four points at 14871. Nifty gained five points to close at 4531.

Market breadth, the number of advancing to declining shares, was positive with gainers outpacing the losers by 2.51:1. Of the 2,858 stocks that traded on the BSE, 2019 stocks advanced, 790 stocks declined and 49 stocks ended unchanged. Most of the sectoral indices ended in the green. The BSE FMCG gained 4.19% followed by BSE CD (down 4.04%) and BSE HC (up 2.28%). Among laggards, BSE Bankex and BSE IT index lost 1% each, while BSE PSU and BSE Oil & Gas closed with marginal losses.

Of the 30 stocks of the Sensex basket, Hindalco Industries was the top gainer soaring 6.09% for the day to Rs93.15. ITC advanced 5.76% to Rs203. Other gainers include JP Associates that jumped 4.53% to Rs225.90, Grasim Industries up by 4.38% at Rs2,306.20. ACC, Reliance Communications, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Hindustan Unilever and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries closed with marginal gains. Mahindra & Mahindra tumbled 3.85% to Rs697.50, Infosys Technologies shed 2.16% to Rs1,645.95, State Bank of India dipped 1.90% to Rs1,873.20 and ICICI Bank lost 1.74% to Rs719.70.

Over 4.80 crore shares of Satyam Computer Services changed hands on the BSE followed by Cals Refineries (4.20 crore shares), Ispat Industries (3.85 crore shares), Alok Industries (3.55 crore shares) and Suzlon Energy (3.27 crore shares).

Suzlon Energy registered a turnover of Rs392 crore on the BSE followed by Satyam Computer Services (Rs320 crore), Unitech (Rs291 crore), Essar Oil (Rs273 crore) and Tata Steel (Rs264 crore).