Market recovers on late buying

The market witnessed a correction in the opening trades, as weak Asian markets, and flat US and European indices dampened the sentiment. Although the Sensex resumed on a positive note at 13772, yet the market soon lost ground and slipped to touch the early low of 13638. The market managed to recover some lost ground but as the trading progressed the Sensex slipped significantly in the afternoon with selling in heavyweight, IT, oil and banking stocks dragging the index to the day's low of 13612. However, recovery in auto, banking and capital goods stocks towards the close lifted the Sensex to the positive territory to touch the intra-day high of 13806. The Sensex finally ended the session with gains of 16 points at 13782, while the Nifty added nine points and closed at 4086.

Among the sectoral indices, the Bankex led the upsurge with gains of 1.46% at 6851 followed by the BSE Auto index (up 0.54% at 5007) and the BSE CG index (up 0.46% at 9945). However, the BSE IT index, The BSE Oil & Gas index, the BSE FMCG index and the BSE Teck index closed in negative territory. Interestingly, the market breadth was negative. Of the 2,633 scrips traded on the BSE 1,407 stocks declined, 1,122 stocks advanced and 104 stocks ended unchanged.

Out of the 30 Sensex stocks, 17 managed to end in the green while 13 stocks ended with losses. Banking major SBI was the lead gainer and soared 3.83% at Rs1,123. Hero Honda advanced 3.20% at Rs701, Reliance Energy moved up by 2.72% at Rs519, Tata Steel jumped 1.64% at Rs562, Bajaj Auto shot up by 1.24% at Rs2,564, Ranbaxy added 1.14% at Rs393 and Bharti Airtel rose 1.13% at Rs825. ICICI Bank, L&T and Gujarat Ambuja Cement gained marginally. Among the laggards, TCS dropped 2.46% at Rs1,237, HLL shed 1.77% at Rs191, Cipla declined by 1.75% at Rs208 and ONGC lost 1.39% at Rs909.

Banking stocks were the star performers, Fwedral Bank 4.78% at Rs257, BOI surged 2.70% at Rs194, Bank of Baroda jumped 2.62% at Rs243, Oriental Bank scaled up 2.39% at Rs195, Canara Bank spurted 2.19% at Rs221, Punjab National Bank soared 2.14% at Rs508 and UTI Bank was up 1.87% at Rs517.

Over 1.77 crore of IFCI shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Fortis Healthcare (1.37 crore shares), Tata Teleservices (83.54 lakh shares), Nagarjuna Fertilizers (82.98 lakh shares) and GV Films (70.86 lakh shares).

Reliance Capital registered a turnover of Rs103 crore on the BSE followed by Reliance Industries (Rs101 crore), SBI (Rs93 crore), Infosys (Rs72 crore) and Tata Steel (Rs65 crore).