Sensex slides 36 points, losses stem

After two straight days of gains the Sensex lost steam and remained volatile in today's trade, despite positive cues from the Asian and US markets. The US and European markets on Wednesday closed higher by over 1.5% each, while the Asian indices ended the day with decent gains in the range of 0.14-1.77%. The Sensex ignored the positive global cues and ended the day with a marginal loss of 36 points or 21 basis points. However, in today's trade, European indices (FTSE 100) were trading lower at 5246 that is about 10 points below its previous closing which made the Sensex slide further during the course of the day and hit the low of 17092.

It was a day full of contrast with volatility written all over it, as the Sensex that opened at 17274, 43 points higher over previous closing, ended the day with marginal loss. The bellwether during the day went to hit the high of 17350, however it wasn't able to sustain that level and witnessed high volatility to close below its previous close. The stronger rupee brought selling in the export driven sectors, where information technology (IT) stocks fell the most. At the closing bell, the Sensex traded at 17195 with marginal loss of 36 points, while Nifty fell by 9 points to end the day at 5109. The Singapore Nifty closed 8 points lower to its previous days closing settlement price. The market breadth was fairly positive as out of the 2,836 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,401 stocks advanced, whereas 1,357 stocks declined. Seventy eight stocks ended unchanged.

Among the sectoral indices, the BSE metal surged the most with gains of 1.72%, followed by the BSE Bankex that rose by 1.58%, while the BSE Power and the BSE PSU jumped by more than 0.49% and 0.47% respectively. Among the sectoral losers, the BSE TECk fell the most with loss of 1.54%, while the BSE IT, BSE HC and BSE CD lost over 1% each. On the stocks front, Sun TV Network topped the gainers list on the BSE and surged the most by 11.04% to Rs361.10, followed by EIH that rose by 7.24% to Rs136.25 and United Spirits that jumped by 7.13%. Banks like Yes Bank and Bank Of India rose by over 6% each. Even Jindal Steel & Power, GlaxoSmithkline Consumer Healthcare and Indiabulls Real Estate ended the day with gains of over 5% each. Among losers, Bharti Airtel fell the most by 4.21% to Rs325.10, followed by Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Hindustan Construction Company, Reliance Infrastructure, Bajaj Auto and Divi's Lab that declined by over 3% each.

On turnover front, Over 1.45 crore shares of Suzlon Energy changed hands on the BSE followed by Ispat Industries (1.32 crore shares), Unitech (1.16 crore shares), IFCI (1.01 crore shares) and Reliance Communications (0.66 crore shares).