Sensex caught in volatility web

On a day when the global indices staged a mixed bag performance, the Sensex once again witnessed a day of high volatility and lost the steam at the end. Owing to almost flat closing of the US market, Asian indices gave a mixed bag performance, however European markets opened with decent gains and are currently trading at 5144, about 35 points above its previous closing. Nikkei 225, Kospi and Hang Seng ended the day with smart gain of close to 1% each, while Jakarta Composite and Taiwan weighted declined by more than 1% each. Besides, traders in US markets will be looking forward to the data on the wholesale inventories, continuing claims and trade balance that will be out today which might decide the trading course for the major US indices.

Benchmark Sensex opened at 16908, about 101 points higher over yesterday’s closing, however it witnessed high volatility for third consecutive trading session. While continued selling in IT and TECk stocks on the back of the weakening of the US dollar and earning downgrades, pulled Sensex down to hit the days low of 16775 during the course of the day. However buying in realty, FMCG and oil & gas landed support to the Sensex. Alike yesterday the index witnessed a steep fall towards the closing hours, however it recovered in the closing minutes of trade and ended the session 36 points higher at 16843, while Nifty rose by 16 points to close marginally above5000 mark and ended the day at 5002. The market breadth was fairly negative as out of 2,866 stocks traded on the BSE 1,511 stocks declined, whereas 1,247 stocks advanced. One hundred-eight stocks ended unchanged.

Among sectoral indices, it was only IT and telecom stocks that traded in the red. While BSE Realty and BSE FMCG gained the most and ended the day with over 2% gains each followed by BSE Oil & Gas, Auto, Power, Metal, Bankex and CD that rose by over 1% each. However, BSE TECk plunged the most by 2.70% followed by BSE IT that lost 1.74%. On the back of weakening of US dollar and downgrading of IT sector by major brokerage house resulted in a massive sell off in the IT stocks that recorded a fall for the third consecutive trading session. While the concerns raised on the future earnings of the telecom players on account of price war in the industry doubled with the expected regulatory activity led the fall in the telecom stocks. On the stocks front, Housing Development & Infrastructure led the top gainers list and surged the most by 6.45% to Rs363.10, followed by Great Eastern Shipping Company that rose 6.02% to Rs278.15, while Siemens, Tata Motors and Oracle Financial Services gained over 5% each. Among losers, Bharti Airtel fell the most by 6.61% to Rs334.65, Reliance Communications declined by 6.01% to Rs246.30, Piramal Healthcare fell by 5.70% to Rs389.50, while Sintex Industries and Max India lost over 4% each. And stocks like Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Tata Consultancy Services, HCL Technologies and United Phosphorus ended with loss of over 3% each.

On turnover front, over 1.50 crore Unitech shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Ispat Industries (1.22 crore shares), Bharti Airtel (0.81 crore shares), Suzlon Energy (0.65 crore shares), Reliance Communications (0.63 crore shares) and Housing Development & Infrastructure (0.62 crore shares