Market slips marginally on late selling

The Sensex drifted into the red towards the close and ended the trading session at 12709.
The market witnessed selling pressure towards the close, after an early rally had seen the Sensex notch up gains of 125 points on sustained buying support.

The Sensex began the day with gains of 32 points at 12756 on the back of firm Asian indices and surged above 12800 to touch an intra-day high of 12849. The Sensex held firm above 12800 amid a range-bound trend for the better part of the trading session before the resumption of selling dragged it to the day's low of 12680. The Sensex ended the session with losses of 14 points at 12709, while the Nifty was down a point at 3677. However, the other Asian indices like the Nikkei, the Hang Seng, the Kospi and the Straits Times closed with gains of nearly 1% each.

Among the losers, Satyam shed 2.82% at Rs428, ITC dropped 2.52% at Rs186, Bajaj Auto lost 1.70% at Rs2,742 and Maruti was down nearly 1% at Rs937. However, Reliance Energy rose 1.64% at Rs460, Tata Steel jumped 1.23% at Rs508, Wipro added 1.10% at Rs556 and Bharti Airtel moved up by 1.13% at Rs497.

On the sectoral front, the BSE CD index rose 1.58% at 3417 while the BSE FMCG index dipped 1.15% at 2009. The market breadth was positive. Of the 2,515 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,293 stocks advanced, 1,132 stocks declined and 90 stocks ended unchanged.

Among the consumer durable stocks Mirc Electronics soared 4.11% at Rs25, Videocon Industries advanced 3.30% at Rs501, Whirlpool jumped 2.87% at Rs39 and Hitachi Home Appliances was up 1.62% at Rs75. Blue Star, VIP Industries and Blow Plast also ended with steady gains.

Over 1.35 crore IFCI shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Hanung Toys & Textiles (1.20 crore shares), Nandan Exim (56.37 lakh shares), SAIL (43.69 lakh shares) and Tech Mahindra (35.99 lakh shares).

Value-wise Tech Mahindra registered a turnover of Rs300 crore on the BSE followed by Tata Steel (Rs178 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs157 crore), Hanung Toys & Textiles (Rs115 crore) and Hindustan Zinc (Rs69 crore).