Strong comeback

Taking lead from weak global markets, the 30-stock Sensex of the BSE started the day with a pessimistic note—142 points lower at the opening bell. The index remained subdued during the major part of the day and trade more than 150 points lower, as investors booked profits for the Friday’s surge. Metal, consumer durables and technology stocks took the major beating. The index faltered by afternoon and slipped to the day's low of 14,281—283 points below the previous close. While the market fluctuated sharply thereafter, firm bullish sentiment and strong buying in heavyweights and PSU stocks in late trades helped the Sensex erase most of its losses. The Sensex finally ended the session 0.45% or 66 points lower at 14,499. The Nifty slipped by 11 points at 4,349.

The market breadth was positive, as 50% stocks (1,331 stocks) advanced and 47% stocks (1,250 stocks) declined. Around 3% stocks (96 stocks) ended unchanged.

Eight of the 13 sectoral indices ended in the red. The BSE Metal dropped 1.08% at 12,214 followed by the BSE CD (down 1.05% at 3,800.62) and the BSE Teck (down 0.89% at 3,046). However, the BSE PSU gained 0.31% at 6,768, the BSE Oil & Gas, the BSE FMCG, the BSE Bankex and the BSE Reality closed with marginal gains.

Heavyweights led the fall in the Sensex. Ranbaxy Laboratories slipped by 3.61% at Rs499.80, Tata Steel slumped by 2.67% at Rs584.30, Maruti Suzuki India shed 2.56% at Rs650.40 and Bharti Airtel lost 2.50% at Rs816.25. While Reliance Communications, Infosys, Hindustan Unilever, Tata Power and NTPC were down by over 1% each.

Among the gainers ITC jumped 1.62% at Rs191.65, HDFC Bank gained 1.48% at Rs1,296.10, BHEL soared 0.90% at Rs1721.90, SBI rose by 0.88% at Rs1416 and Satyam Computer Services was up 0.85% at Rs423.40, while ONGC and ACC ended with modest gains.

On turnover front, over 3.31 crore Resurgere Mines & Minerals India shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Reliance Natural Resources (1.17 crore shares), Nutek India (65.53 lakh shares), Chambal Fertilisers & Chemicals (53.22 lakh shares) and Noida Toll Bridge Company (44.57 lakh shares).