Sensex recovers on late buying

The market resumed in the green despite weak Asian cues and rallied sharply led by capital goods and auto stocks. Energy majors Reliance Industries and ONGC also supported indices. The Sensex came of its high as profit selling began in mid-morning trades and slipped into the red as investor confidence waned. The index majors ACC and Bharti Airtel led the slump and the Sensex touched the intra-day low of 15,654. The market remained subdued thereafter but recovered on a hectic buying in heavyweights, IT and pharma stocks towards the close. The Sensex finally wrapped up the session with the gains of 77 points at 15,776. The Nifty closed 31 points up at 4,620.

The breadth of the market was positive, with gainers outnumbering losers in the ratio of 1.42:1. Of the 2,657 stocks traded on the BSE 1,529 stocks advanced, 1,062 stocks declined and 66 stocks ended unchanged. Among the sectoral indices the BSE IT Index flared up by 1.92%, the BSE Realty Index rose 1.54%, the BSE Oil & Gas Index and the BSE HC Index moved up by 1.49%. However, the BSE Bankex Index, the BSE CG Index and the BSE Metal Index closed in the red.

Among the index heavyweights, Ranbaxy was the star performer and surged 9.49% at Rs373. Cipla spurted 4.19% at Rs194, Maruti Udyog scaled up 3.88% at Rs841, Wipro soared 3.24% at Rs515, TCS advanced 3.21% at Rs1,186, Reliance Energy moved up by 2.80% at Rs780 and M&M added 2.36% at Rs801. However, ACC tumbled 4.56% at Rs1,022, Ambuja Cement slipped 2.84% at Rs125, Bharti Airtel fell 2.28% at Rs925, BHEL was down 1.93% at Rs1,755 and HDFC Bank shed 1.82% at Rs1,219.

IT stocks registered significant gains. Rolta India surged 4.35% at Rs493, Mphasis soared 3.29% at Rs278, Infosys firmed up by 2.26% at Rs2,035 and HCL Technologies added 1.81% at Rs327.

Over 2.84 crore IFCI shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Manglore Chemical & Fertilizer (1.47 crore shares), Suryachakra Power Corporation (1.36 crore shares), IDFC (1.31 crore shares) and IKF Technologies (80.04 lakh shares).

HDFC was the most actively traded counter on the BSE and registered a turnover of Rs369 crore followed by IFCI (Rs160 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs153 crore), IDFC (Rs151 crore) and DLF (Rs145 crore)