Sensex gains amid lacklustre trades

The market closed with marginal gains amid worries about another interest rate hike and liquidity tightening measures from the RBI.
It appeared that investors preferred to remain on the sidelines ahead of the announcement of the monetary policy by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The market opened on a positive note at 13973, up 76 points, and surged to touch the day's high of 14047, gaining 150 points on sustained buying in front-line stocks in tandem with firm global markets. However, after regaining the 14,000 level in the early trades the Sensex eased on profit booking in the heavyweights as well as pharma and fast moving consumer goods stocks, and touched the intra-day low of 13879. The market remained range-bound in the afternoon with marginal gains on account of selective buying in metal and technology stocks. The Sensex finally closed the session with gains of 31 points at 13928. The Nifty ended the session at 4085, up two points.

The breadth of the market was negative. Of the 2,630 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,384 stocks declined, 1,163 stocks advanced and 83 stocks ended unchanged. Among the sectoral indices, except for the BSE Metal Index, the BSE Oil & Gas Index and the BSE Teck Index, all closed in the red. The BSE CD Index slipped by 2.36% at 3740 followed by the BSE FMCG Index (down 1.62% at 1782) and the BSE HC (down 1.40% at 3740).

However, select blue chips notched up significant gains. Tata Steel rose 4.35% at Rs558, Reliance Energy advanced 2.33% at Rs523, Reliance Communication climbed 1.87% at Rs465, ONGC surged 1.27% at Rs933, HDFC scaled up 1.18% at Rs1,670, while Satyam Computer, Hindalco, Reliance Industries, Hero Honda and ACC closed with marginal gains. Among the laggards, ITC tumbled by 2.62% at Rs156, HLL dropped 1.61% at Rs202, Bajaj Auto slipped 1.36% at Rs2,409, SBI was down 1.36% at Rs1,060 and Maruti Udyog dipped 1.15% at Rs767. TCS, HDFC Bank, Tata Motors, Wipro and Bharti Airtel ended with marginal losses.

Metal stocks were in the limelight. Maharashtra Seamless soared 5.92% at Rs563, Jindal Steel jumped 5.43% at Rs2,785, Shree Precoated scaled up 4.99% at Rs363, Tata Steel advanced 4.35% at Rs558 and Jindal Saw gained 2.25% at Rs558. SAIL, Hindalco, Jindal Stainless, Hindustan Zinc and Nalco were up around 1% each.

Over 3.03 crore Gujarat Ambuja Cement shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Reliance Natural Resources (1.78 crore shares), GV Films (91.70 lakh shares), FSL (89.43 lakh shares) and Tata Teleservices (76.55 lakh shares).

Value-wise Gujarat Ambuja Cement registered a turnover of Rs349 crore on the BSE followed by Tata Steel (Rs126 crore), Unitech (Rs121 crore), Phoenix Mills (Rs120 crore) and Advanta (Rs97 crore).