Sensex sheds 69 points

In line with the weakness in the global indices the domestic market slipped in early trades, as the investors were cautious ahead of the announcement of key results. The Sensex opened with a negative gap of 55 points at 13128. The index tumbled 152 points in early trades on heavy selling in banking and auto stocks. The market managed to pare some losses as buying emerged at lower levels but remained in negative territory. The market steadily lost momentum as the trading session progressed and slipped on selling in heavyweight, metal, banking, fast moving consumer goods and public sector unit stocks. The Sensex finally ended the session with losses of 69 points at 13114, while the Nifty shed 33 points and closed at 3830.

The market breadth was weak. Of the 2,628 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,090 stocks advanced, 1,464 stocks declined and 74 stocks ended unchanged. Most of the sectoral indices ended in the red. The BSE Metal Index led the slump and closed weaker by 2.24% at 9122 followed by the BSE PSU Index (down 1.31% at 6023), the BSE FMCG Index (down 1.28% at 1788) and the BSE Bankex (down 1.26% at 6470).

Among the Sensex stocks nine stocks advanced and 21 stocks declined during the day. ONGC slumped 3.13% at Rs853, Tata Steel shed 3.11% at Rs496, Ranbaxy declined 2.94% at Rs335, HDFC lost 2.92% at Rs1,537, Maruti Udyog shed 2.86% at Rs760, ITC fell 2.74% at Rs156, HDFC Bank slipped 2.26% at Rs958, Hero Honda plunged 1.89% at Rs629 and Tata Motors was down 1.63% at Rs710. Among the select gainers Bajaj Auto added 3.03% at Rs2,349, Infosys advanced 2.57% at Rs2,044 and Grasim gained 1.70% at Rs2,259.

Among the metal stocks Sesa Goa tanked 4.94% at Rs1,663, Jindal Steel slumped 4.01% at Rs2,501, Tata Steel dropped 3.11% at Rs496, Hindustan Zinc shed 2.54% at Rs684 and Nalco was down 2.29% at Rs241.

IFCI was the most actively traded counter with volumes of over two crore shares on the BSE followed by Orbit Corporation (1.44 crore shares), Reliance Natural Resources (53.53 lakh shares), Gremach Infrastructure (39.88 lakh shares) and Idea Cellular (39.57 lakh shares).

Value-wise Orbit Corporation clocked a turnover of Rs185 crore on the BSE followed by India Bulls Real Estate (Rs115 crore), Tata Steel (Rs112 crore), Mind Tree (Rs91 crore) and India Bulls (Rs90 crore).