Sensex edges higher at close

Indian markets bounced back on Wednesday snapping earlier losses. The Sensex ended on a flat note with positive bias. On sectoral front, realty and healthcare stocks gained ground, while capital goods and metal edged lower.



It opened on a bleak note tracking negative Asian peers and slipped further on weak global cues. However in the mid noon, the index pared all its losses and made a smart recovery. The index failed to sustain in green zone and again fell into the red amid volatility. Finally, it closed marginally higher after touching a high of 17,782.41 and low of 17,629.19.

European stocks fell for a second day, following US shares lower, amid concern the economic recovery will falter. Asian equities dropped while US index futures rose. Asian stocks fell, dragging the MSCI Asia Pacific Index to its biggest drop in two weeks, after an unexpected decline in US home sales raised concern about the strength of the world`s largest economy.

At the close, the 30-share benchmark index, BSE Sensex ended flat with a rise of 6.25 points or 0.04% at 17,755.94. Meanwhile, the broad based NSE Nifty went up by 6.60 points or 0.12% at 5,323.15.

Sensex Movers

Infosys Technologies contributed rise of 19.32 points in the Sensex. It was followed by I C I C I Bank (12.39 points), Maruti Suzuki India (7.14 points), Hindustan Unilever (6.07 points) and H D F C Bank (5.48 points).

However, Larsen & Toubro contributed fall of 37.41 points in the Sensex. It was followed by Reliance Industries (11.92 points), NTPC (6.16 points), Sterlite Industries (India) (4.64 points) and Tata Motors (3.03 points).

Biggest gainers in the 30-share index were Maruti Suzuki India (2.78%), Hindustan Unilever (1.66%), DLF (1.35%), Infosys Technologies (1.10%), ACC (1.06%), and Reliance Energy (1.03%).

On the other hand, Larsen & Toubro (3.08%), Jindal Steel & Power (1.56%), NTPC (1.43%), Sterlite Industries (India) (1.43%), Tata Motors (0.92%), and Wipro (0.54%) were the major losers in the Sensex.

Mid & Small-cap Space

The BSE Mid and small caps outperformed their larger counterparts gaining 0.84% and 0.70% respectively.

The major gainers in the BSE Midcap were Core Projects and Technologies (2.41%), Alstom Projects India (2.21%), Alfa-Laval (India) (1.53%), A I A Engineering (0.83%) and Ackruti City (0.07%).

The major gainers in the BSE Smallcap were Abhishek Industries (9.29%), Aarti Industries (4.07%), INEOS ABS (India) (3.85%), Action Construction Equipment (1.22%) and Provogue (India) (0.55%).

Sectors in Limelight

The Realty index was at 3,208.83, up by 45.28 points or by 1.43%. The major gainers were Anant Raj Industries (7.23%), D L F (1.35%), Indiabulls Real Estate (1.21%), D B Realty (0.28%) and Ackruti City (0.07%).

The HC index was at 5,740.88, up by 80.23 points or by 1.42%. The major gainers were Apollo Hospitals Enterprise (6.02%), Cadila Healthcare (3.3%), Divis Laboratories (0.85%), Cipla (0.8%) and Aurobindo Pharma (0.53%).

The TECk index was at 3,299.80, up by 27.35 points or by 0.84%. The major gainers were Dish TV India (3.69%), Idea Cellular (1.19%), G T L (0.94%), Bharti Airtel (0.76%) and Oracle Financial Services Software (0.03%).

On the other hand, the Capital Goods index was at 14,498.94, down by 202.62 points or by 1.38%. The major losers were Larsen & Toubro (3.08%), Havell`S India (0.99%), Bharat Electronics (0.48%), Reliance Industrial Infrastructure (0.18%) and Praj Industries (0.12%).

Market Breadth

Market breadth was positive with 1,801 advances against 1,090 declines.
Value and Volume Toppers

Tata Steel topped the value chart on the BSE with a turnover of Rs. 1,078.45 million. It was followed by V I P Industries (Rs. 978.29 million), Sesa Goa (Rs. 760.67 million) and Karnataka Bank , The (Rs. 755.21 million).

The volume chart was led by Karuturi Global with trades of over 11.43 million shares. It was followed by S E L Manufacturing Company (9.63 million), Reliance Natural Resources (4.86 million) and Unitech (4.44 million).