Market scouts for triggers; flirts with 18K

Today's major news

Shree Ashtavinayak in limelight on a buy-back plan; the stock jumped 2.11%

BGR Energy secures contract worth Rs99.41 crore; the stock closed lower by 1.14%

Punj Lloyd wins Rs232-crore contract; the stock ends the day 0.58% lower

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Global signals

European markets were quoting flat ahead of key Euro zone gross domestic product (GDP) data. As of writing, FTSE 100 (UK) was trading 0.06% lower.

All the major Asian indices closed positive except Shanghai Composite that fell marginally. SGX Nifty closed 9 points higher.

US stock futures point to a negative start for the Wall Street as Greece debt crises come to haunt again.

Indian indices

The domestic market continued to be northbound on strong Asian markets combined with buying in automobile stocks.

Sensex started off 25 points lower (at 17915) but few minutes into the trade turned positive and whipsawed range-bound in the first half. In the second half, it inched towards 18000 levels and breached the level first time since February 27, 2008 to touch the day's high of 18048. However soon it pared the early gains to touch the day's low of 17878 before closing at 17970, mere 28 points higher. Nifty missed the 5400 mark by a whisker and wrapped at 5375, nine points down.

Market sentiment

Advancing shares outnumber trailed ones by 1.3. Of the 2,972 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,669 stocks advanced, whereas 1,216 stocks declined. Eighty seven stocks traded unchanged.

Sectoral & stock screening

Most of the counters did not see much change-either up or down by 1%. Automobile was the only exception up by 1.10%. Banking and metal counters occupied the bottom slots.

The top-3 stocks were -Central Bank of India that was up 7.39%, Indiabulls Financials, which ended 6.95% higher and Idea Cellular that was 5.33% up. Of the stocks that were hit the worst were Jain Irrigation that was down 3.30%, Hindustan Unilever that fell 2.07% and Punjab National Bank that shed 1.91%.

Viewing volumes

Steel maker Ispat Industries was the most actively traded share for the third day in a row with over 0.71 crore shares changing hands on the BSE, followed by wind turbine maker Suzlon Energy (0.44 crore shares), Reliance group's Reliance Natural Resources (0.36 crore shares), India's second largest realty major Unitech (0.34 crore shares) and industrial finance company IFCI (0.28 crore shares).