Gains curbed on late selling

STOCK REPORT

Key indices ended up roughly 1 per cent on Tuesday, erasing early gains in a late bout of profit booking.

Steel shares surged as reports of South Korea's Posco hiking select product prices sparked hopes that domestic companies would follow suit. Suzlon Energy and Siemens India, which broke into Nifty on Tuesday, were among notable gainers.

The BSE Sensex closed at 10151.01, up 108.95 points or 1.1 per cent from Monday, after touching a high of 10224.26 and a low of 9902.33.

The National Stock Exchange's 50-share Nifty closed at 2982.45, up 39.25 points or 1.3 per cent, off the session's high of 3004.15 and low of 2899.25.

Total turnover on both the exchanges combined was Rs 11,400 crore on Tuesday, as against a five-day daily average of roughly Rs 9,700 crore.

Shares of Suzlon and Siemens, which replaced Shipping Corporation of India and Tata Chemicals in Nifty, rose 8.8 per cent (Rs 891.95) and 4 per cent (Rs 841.85), respectively.

Among steel shares, SAIL gained 6.2 per cent and Tata Steel rose 4.4 per cent. Posco, the world's third largest steel maker post Arcelor-Mittal Steel merger, said it would raise hot-rolled and cold-rolled steel prices due to rise in iron ore prices.

Recently, China, the world's biggest steel importer, approved raising iron ore contract prices by 19 per cent.

Notable index laggards included Oriental Bank of Commerce, Jet Airways, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam, Ranbaxy Laboratories, and HDFC Bank, down around 3-4 per cent.

Defying the positive trend in frontline shares, the broad market ended weak, with losers leading gainers 1625:718.

Among broader indices, CNX Midcap was down 0.6 per cent, while S&P CNX 500 gained 0.6 per cent.