Market ends flat ends

The market was poised for another positive close, but a late bout of selling dragged the Sensex below 14300 and halted its up-move. Shrugging off the mixed trend in the US and European markets, the Sensex took a cue from the Asian indices and resumed 99 points above its last close at 14352. Extending the up-move on hectic buying support, the Sensex breached the 14500 mark and touched the day's high of 14493. The market remained above the crucial 14350 levels for a major portion of the day, but witnessed a major slump towards the close and touched an intra-day low of 14170. The Sensex closed three points down at 14250, while the Nifty was two points lower at 4231.



The market breadth was positive, with the gainers outpacing the losers by 1.29:1. Of the 2,689 stocks that traded on the BSE, 1,465 stocks declined, 1,131 stocks advanced and 93 stocks ended unchanged. Sectoral indices had a mixed ending. BSE Auto, BSE Oil & Gas and BSE CD gained around 1% each. BSE CG dropped 1.65% followed by BSE Metal (down 0.45%) and BSE Power (down 0.37%).



Among the Sensex stocks, Maruti Suzuki India was the leading gainer and soared 3.20% to Rs1,144. Reliance Industries advanced 3.16% to Rs1,934.30, Hero Honda jumped up 3.10% to Rs1,492.05 and Reliance Communications moved up 3.09% to Rs269.85. Among other stocks, National Thermal Power Corporation jumped 2.96% to Rs205.40, Tata Motors shot up by 2.62% to Rs296.20, while Tata Steel, Bharat Heavy Electricals, Wipro, Bharti Airtel, Mahindra & Mahindra and HDFC Bank closed with marginal gains. Among laggards, Sterlite Industries tumbled 6.12% to Rs590.15, Reliance Infrastructure shed 3.97% to Rs1,060.50, JP Associates declined 3.66% to Rs198.55 and Larsen & Toubro lost 3.65% to Rs1,378. HDFC, State Bank of India, DLF, ACC and ONGC closed with marginal loss.


Over 3.52 crore shares of Mahindra Satyam changed hands on the BSE followed by Suzlon Energy (1.61 crore shares), Reliance Natural Resources (1.60 crore shares), Ispat Industries (1.48 crore shares) and IFCI (1.46 crore shares)