Sensex pares early losses

The market overcame heavy selling in the early trades and climbed to new heights. The benchmark index, the Sensex, touched a new high of 19,174 in volatile trades during the opening session but slipped on profit booking in the afternoon. The market managed to recover from its day's low of 18777 towards the close despite weak global cues and rising crude oil prices. Oil prices rose to record highs on fears that Turkey will pursue Kurdish rebels into Iraq and disrupt oil supplies in the region. The Sensex, which commenced the day on a promising note by touching a record peak, wrapped up the session with losses of six points at 19052, while the Nifty was down two points at 5668.

The breadth of the market was marginally weak. Of the 2,817 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,543 stocks declined, 1,212 stocks advanced and 62 stocks ended unchanged. On the sectoral front, the BSE Bankex was up 2.75% at 9974, the BSE CD Index added 1.20% at 4892 and the BSE Realty Index gained 1.10% at 10187 while the BSE HC Index closed marginally higher at 3854. However, the BSE IT Index, BSE TECk Index, BSE FMCG Index and BSE Oil & Gas Index were down 1-0.50% each.

Among the major losers, Infosys shed 3.14% at Rs1,868, HLL declined 3.08% at Rs212, M&M fell 2.34% at Rs815, L&T slipped 2.02% at Rs3,346, SBI dipped 1.67% at Rs1,924, Bajaj Auto lost 1.55% at Rs2,540 and Bharti Airtel slumped 1.50% at Rs1,110. ACC, Grasim and ONGC were down over 1% each. ICICI Bank, however, gained 5.48% at Rs1,157, followed by Hindalco that rose 4.55% at Rs197, Reliance Energy that added 3.09% at Rs1,904, Maruti Udyog that jumped 2.28% at Rs1,186 and NTPC that was up by 1.96% at Rs231. While Satyam Computer, Reliance Communication, HDFC Bank, Ambuja Cement and Dr Reddy's Lab ended the day in the positive territory.

Over 3.55 crore Power Grid Corporation shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Tata Teleservices (3.52 crore shares), IFCI (1.76 crore shares), Reliance Natural Resources (1.71 crore shares) and Reliance Petroleum (1.21 crore shares).

Value-wise, Reliance Energy registered a turnover of Rs657 crore on the BSE followed by Power Grid Corporation (Rs433 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs394 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs295 crore) and Reliance Communication (Rs259 crore).