Sensex closes marginally above 14200

The trading session began with a positive gap of 55 points at 14273 and the Sensex surged to touch the day's high of 14384 in early trades on the strength in the global indices. The market held firm above the 14200 level amid substantial volatility for a major portion of the trading session. However, the market drifted into negative territory and touched an intra-day low of 14127 on hectic selling in metal, oil and consumer durable stocks. The Sensex managed to pare the losses towards the close and ended the session with small gains of 11 points at 14229. The Nifty closed at 4178, up 11 points.

The breadth of the market was negative. Of the 2,610 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,483 stocks declined, 1,049 stocks advanced and 78 stocks ended unchanged. Among the sectoral indices the BSE CD Index slipped 0.90% at 3738 followed by the BSE Metal Index (down 0.62% at 9958). On the other hand the BSE CG Index was up 0.91% at 9892 and the BSE Auto Index gained 0.75% at 4979.

Select blue chips notched up gains. Grasim rose 2.32% at Rs2,498, Bajaj Auto advanced 2.23% at Rs2,491, HLL climbed 1.66% at Rs215, TCS gained 1.53% at Rs1,240, Wipro advanced 1.28% at Rs563, L&T added 1.13% at Rs1,708 and Tata Motors was up 1.07% at Rs769. Maruti Udyog, NTPC and Ranbaxy ended with marginal gains. Among the laggards Tata Steel slipped 1.81% at Rs560 and Satyam Computer dropped 1.33% at Rs460. ONGC, Reliance Energy, Gujarat Ambuja, Hero Honda, HDFC, Hindalco, Reliance Communications and ACC ended with marginal losses.

Over 1.41 crore IFCI shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Orbit Corporation (90.35 lakh shares), Reliance Natural Resources (82.19 lakh shares), Teledata Informatics (75.71 lakh shares) and Tata Teleservices (20.12 lakh shares).

Value-wise Reliance Industries registered a turnover of Rs307 crore on the BSE followed by Indiabulls Real Estate (Rs228 crore), Orbit Corporation (Rs192 crore), Tata Steel (Rs77 crore) and Tata Teleservices (Rs69 crore).