Market closes marginally above 14450

In a listless trading session, the market displayed a range-bound trend with alternate bouts of buying and selling. After opening above its previous close the Sensex moved up to touch an intra-day high of 14484. However the sentiment turned bearish during the day and the index dipped to the day's low of 14348. The Sensex recouped its losses on selective buying interest and ended the trading session at 14454, up 35 points. The Nifty advanced 17 points to close at 4278. The market breadth was negative on the BSE. Of the 2,647 stocks traded, 1,123 stocks advanced, 1,438 stocks declined and the remaining stocks ended unchanged.

The sectoral indices were mixed. The BSE Bankex, the BSE IT index and the BSE PSU index exhibited weakness. On the other hand the BSE Auto, the BSE CG index, the BSE FMCG index, the BSE HC index, the BSE Metal index, the BSE Oil & Gas index and the BSE Teck index ended in positive territory.

Among the gainers HDFC surged 4.44% at Rs1,794, Reliance Communication gained 3.37% at Rs523, ACC jumped 2.21% at Rs891, BHEL added 1.52% at Rs2,676, HDFC Bank advanced 1.25% at Rs1,117, Maruti Udyog was up 1.16% at Rs830 and Bharti Airtel advanced 1.01% at Rs859. Hero Honda, Reliance and Grasim reported steady gains. However, Bajaj Auto dropped 2.37% at Rs2,195, Gujarat Ambuja shed 2.23% at Rs116, SBI tumbled 1.64% at Rs1,325 and ICICI Bank dipped 1.12% at Rs929. BHEL, NTPC and Hindalco closed with marginal losses.

Raj Television at Rs288.30 and Networking Finance at Rs599.65 hit the upper circuit on the BSE. On the other hand, Dhanalaxmi Roto at Rs16.80 hit the lower circuit.

Over 1.42 crore Reliance Energy shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Cairn (71.92 lakh shares), Reliance Petro (62.16 lakh shares) and SAIL (50.03 lakh shares).