Key indices slip, but mid-caps strong

Today, the market resumed on a positive note despite pale Asian and US markets. Action was mostly stock-specific. Lack of positive cues and inaction by investors kept the Sensex subdued throughout the day. The market exhibited range-bound moves till the afternoon, but a strong bout of selling towards the close saw the index touch the day's low of 19,482, down 121 points. However, buying at lower levels helped the Sensex to pare some of its losses and end the session with a loss of 74 points at 19,530. The Nifty closed the session at 5,858, down seven points.

The market breadth was very positive. Of the 2,864 stocks traded on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), 1,934 stocks advanced, 878 stocks declined and 52 stocks ended unchanged. Except few, most of the sectoral indices ended in the green. The BSE CD index rallied sharply and gained 6.12% followed by the BSE Metal index (up 3.22%), the BSE Auto index (up 1.67%) and the BSE CG index (up 1.07%). However, the BSE Oil & Gas index slipped and dropped 1.06% followed by the BSE Bankex index (down 0.63%), the BSE IT index (down 0.15%) and the BSE Realty index (down 0.10%).

Among the major losers, Reliance slumped by 2.33% at Rs2,864, TCS plummeted by 2.22% at Rs1,030, ICICI Bank tumbled by 2.13% at Rs1,140, Satyam Computer shed 1.58% at Rs441, ONGC crashed by 1.28% at Rs1,157 and Ranbaxy dropped 1.13% at Rs388. However, Tata Steel surged 4.08% at Rs873, Mahindra & Mahindra jumped 2.79% at Rs772, BHEL zoomed 1.96% at Rs2,815, Ambuja Cement added 1.22% at Rs154 and L&T gained 1.21% at Rs4,229.

Over 2.48 crore shares of Ispat Industries changed hands on the BSE followed by Ashok Leyland (1.99 crore shares), IFCI (1.88 crore shares), Chambal Fertilisers (1.70 crore shares) and Tata Teleservices (1.69 crore shares).

Valuewise, Jindal Steel registered a turnover of Rs471 crore on the BSE followed by Essar Oil (Rs453 crore), Mundra Port (Rs331 crore), ONGC (Rs242 crore) and IFCI (Rs200 crore).