Sensex slips amid sharp volatile trades

The market saw high volatility during the day as stocks gyrated throughout the session with the Sensex witnessing an intra-day swing of 222 points. The market opened higher buoyed by the overnight gains in the US markets, but pared early gains as investors' sentiment turned cautious as the Sensex neared its lifetime high of 14,726 points. Thereafter sustained selling in frontline, auto and metal stocks saw the Sensex enter into negative territory. After displaying some range-bound moves, the market plunged deep into the red on heavy selling towards the close to touch the day's low of 14,495. The Sensex finally closed the session at 14,657, down 79 points. The Nifty had a flat close at 4395, down 18 points.

The breadth of the market was positive. Of the 2,719 stocks traded on the BSE 1,845 stocks advanced, 806 stocks declined and 68 stocks ended unchanged. Among the sectoral indices, the BSE CD index soared 3.87%, the BSE Metal index advanced 2.06% and the BSE HC index was up 1.51%. However the BSE CG index, BSE Power index and the BSE Oil & Gas index closed in the red.

Selective buying helped the index overcome its losses. Grasim Industries gained 3.18% at Rs1,894.40, Ranbaxy Laboratories advanced 2.80% at Rs524, JPAssociates gained 2.38% at Rs174.50 and Maruti Suzuki India added 2.08% at Rs572.15. Tata Steel, ACC, Satyam Computer Services, Hindalco, Infosys, State Bank of India and Reliance Communications notched up steady gains.

Selling was evident in select heavyweights. Tata Consultancy Services dropped 2.73% at Rs816.30, Reliance Industries declined 2.49% at Rs2242.50, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd tumbled 2.41% at Rs1714.15, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation shed 1.53% at Rs981.55, Sterlite Industries dipped 1.38% at Rs623.95, Larsen & Toubro was down 1.33% at Rs2656.55 and DLF shed 1.22% at Rs513.80.

Over 4.49 crore Reliance Natural Resources shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Ispat Industries (2.86 crore shares), IFCI (1.94 crore shares), Bellary Steel (1.14 crore shares) and BL Kashyap & Sons (1.10 crore shares).