Market ends choppy

The market opened flat but expectations of good earnings helped the Sensex recover from the day's low of 15,135. The market remained choppy in early trades but recovered as results poured in. Good quarter results of Hindustan Unilever and SBI, followed by heavy buying in cement stocks helped the Sensex see the day's high of 15,452 by afternoon. However, in the closing session, the Sensex entered in to the negative territory as selling intensified. But, last minute buying helped the Sensex finally close the session at 15,261 up 26 points. The Nifty, the broad based index, closed by shedding five points at 4,440.

The breadth of the market was positive. Of the 2,660 stocks traded on the BSE 1,342 stocks advanced, 1,258 stocks declined and 60 stocks remained unchanged. Among the 12 sectoral indices on the BSE only three managed to close in the green. The BSE Realty index dropped 1.97% at 7,670, the BSE Metal index slipped 1.05% at 11,381 while, the BSE HC index, the BSE CG index and the BSE Teck index also ended at lower levels. The BSE Bankex index, the BSE FMCG and the BSE PSU index gained over 0.50-1% each.

Select heavyweights edged higher on decent buying support. On the back of good quarterly results, Hindustan unilever rose 6.26% at Rs209 and SBI jumped 5.26% at Rs1,579. Ambuja Cement advanced 3.40% at Rs129, Grasim added 2.96% at Rs2,947, ACC gained 2.27% at Rs1023 and Reliance Energy gained 2.20% at Rs780. However, select front-line stocks came under selling pressure. Hindalco was the major loser and dropped 4.13% at Rs166. Other draggers M&M declined 3% at Rs753, ITC dropped 2.62% at Rs167 and TCS shed 1.32% at Rs1,138.

Over 1.78 crore Reliance Natural Resources shares changed hands on the BSE followed by IKF Technologies (1.03 crore shares), IFCI (97.43 lakh shares), Suryachakra Power Corporation ( 86.25 lakh shares) and JP Hydro (54.75 lakh shares).

Value wise, Reliance Industries registered a turnover of Rs216 crore on the BSE followed by Reliance Energy (Rs200 crore), Housing Development & Infrastructure (Rs182 crore), SBI (Rs178 crore) and Reliance Capital (Rs152 crore).