Metals steel the show

The stock market witnessed strong volatility, swinging 214 points during intra-day trades, as shares gyrated sharply between zones. Taking cue from mixed Asian indices, Sensex started on a positive note at 10037, but failed to sustain its gains, as a sharp bout of profit-taking pushed the index below 10000 mark to an intra-day low of 9913. While the market remained lacklustre with a negative bias for some time, Sensex rolled back to the green by mid-noon trades on renewed buying support, and surged to an intra-day high of 10127. However, a fresh round of profit-taking towards the fag end saw Sensex pare its gains and end at 10048, up only 45 points, while Nifty added 26 points to close at 3109.

The market breadth, the number of advancing shares to declining ones, was positive. Of the 2,658 stocks traded on BSE 1,527 stocks advanced, whereas 1,018 stocks declines. 113 stocks remained unchanged. Of the 13 sectoral indices, BSE Metal gained 4.85%, while BSE HC, BSE Bankex and BSE Auto ended at higher levels. BSE Oil & Gas and BSE IT were the only two sectoral indices posting losses for the day.

Select heavyweights edged higher on decent buying support. Tata Steel rose 9.96% at Rs225.20, Tata Motors jumped 9.03% at Rs188.30, Reliance Communications advanced 7.23% at Rs167.10, Hindalco Industries added 7.23% at Rs55, ACC Industries gained 4.57% at Rs586 and JP Associates gained 4.02% at Rs89.30. However, select front line stocks came under selling pressure. HDFC was the major loser and lost 3.88% at Rs1,589.15. Infosys declined 2.46% at Rs1,346.75, Bharat Heavy Electricals dropped 1.19% at Rs1,551.40 and Reliance Industries shed 1.18% at Rs1,548.

Over 3.49 crore shares of Reliance Natural Resources changed hands on BSE followed by Unitech (1.53 crore shares), GVK Power & Infrastructure (1.31 crore shares), IFCI (98 lakh shares) and Cals Refineries (88 lakh shares).