Sensex see-saws, closes marginally higher

When all the global indices staged a strong performance, the Sensex remained volatile and shed the heavy gains of the morning trades. The day started with the overnight gains of the US markets that jumped by over1%. The trend was continued by the Asian indices that registered gains in the range of 0.13-1.85% each, with India's Sensex losing the most whereas China's Shanghai Composite rising the most. Even FTSE 100 that opened strongly is trading at 5265 with 58 points or about 1% gains at the time of writing the report. The Singapore Nifty rose marginally by 10 points in today's trade. Amid selling pressure in the heavyweights like Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), the Sensex lost the morning gains and closed marginally higher by 0.13% over its yesterday’s closing.

On the back of heavy sell-off in the major index components, the Sensex that once touched 17000 level and traded with strong gains, lost steam in the closing hours and ended the day slightly higher with marginal gains despite global indices remaining strongly upbeat. The Sensex that opened

at 16796 with gains of mere 6 points later went to hit the high of 17007. However it couldn't hold on to such gains, remained volatile and ended the day with marginal gain of 21 points amid the heavy selling in the Sensex heavyweights. The Indian markets ignored the strong indicators from the European and Asian markets. While the Sensex during the day saw the low of 16765, it closed at 16811. While Nifty gained mere 8 points to end the day at 4997, 3 points below the significant psychological level of 5000. The market breadth was fairly positive, as out of the 2851 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,414 stocks advanced, whereas 1,327 stocks declined. One hundred and ten stocks closed unchanged.

Among the sectoral indices, BSE FMGC surged the most with the gains of 3.03% followed by BSE HC and BSE IT that rose by over 2% each. Among the losers, BSE Oil & Gas declined by 2.71% and BSE CG slid by 1.44%. On the stocks’ front, Jubilant Organosys jumped the most and surged by 12.52% to Rs257.30 followed by Asian Paints that rose by 9.54% to Rs1,676.15 and Hindustan Zinc that advanced 7.60% to Rs934.05. While stocks like Piramal Healthcare, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Dabur India and IRB Infrastructure ended the day with gains of over 5% each. Among the losers, Zee Entertainment fell the most by 5.04% to Rs227.00 followed by Gail India that fell by 4.32% to Rs362.85, RIL slid by 4.04% to Rs2,047.30. Nagarjuna Construction, Punj Llyod, Sintex Industries, Grasim Industries and Hindustan Copper declined by over 3% each.

On the turnover front, Over 1.06 crore shares of Unitech changed hands on the BSE followed by Ispat Industries (0.91 crore shares), Jaiprakash Associates (0.55 crore shares), Sesa Goa (0.46 crore shares) and GVK Power & Infrastructure (0.33 crore shares).

Events outcome

Bharat Forge's top line slid by 36%
Century Textiles Q2 profit rose to Rs82.63 crore
NTPC's net profit was up marginally
BHEL’s Q2 net profit surged by 39% to Rs857.9 crore
Alphageo India recorded net profit of Rs9.50 crore
ITC’ net profit was up by 25.8% to Rs1,009.90 crore
IDFC’ net profit rose by 26% to Rs291.84 crore