Sensex ends slightly up at 10113.18

STOCK REPORT

Equities ended with small gains in choppy session Wednesday, with the 30-share Sensex touching a record high intra-day.

Dealers said traders were nervous about buying at higher levels, and booked profits at every opportunity. Index heavyweight Hindustan Lever extended gains on strong fourth quarter numbers reported Tuesday, rising 5 per cent.

However, other index majors such as Reliance Industries and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation fell around 1-2 per cent, largely offsetting strengths in metal and key pharmaceutical shares.

Sensex ended at 10113.18, up 26.55 points, after touching a record high of 10191.97 intra-day.

National Stock Exchange's 50-share Nifty rose 4.65 points to close at 3022.20. Sensex has been trading in a band between 10,000-10,200 for over a week now.

While foreign funds continue to be net buyers, dealers said local traders were wary of taking up positions on either side.

On a few occasions in the last couple of months when the market did show signs of a correction, short sellers were trapped when the market rebounded all of a sudden.

At the same time, traders are not comfortable tagging along with the foreign funds at current levels, as the general perception is that the market is looking overheated.

Hindustan Lever was the star performer among index stocks, hitting a 52-week high of Rs 236.70 before settling at Rs 235.90.

Bajaj Auto rose 5 per cent, touching an all-time high of Rs Rs 2,432.50 before settling at Rs 2,416.10, fuelled by market talk the company may announce a bonus or stock split shortly.

Aluminium majors National Alumnium Co. and Hindalco Industries recouped Tuesday's losses, rising 4 per cent and 2 per cent respectively. So did steel stocks Tata Steel and Steel Authority of India, which were up 1 per cent each.

Ranbaxy Laboratories rose over 2 per cent after the company on Wednesday confirmed that it has bid for a German company without naming it. Media reports over the last week say Ranbaxy has bid for German generic drug major Betapharm Arzneimittel.

Among key laggards, Mahindra & Mahindra, Housing Development Finance Corp., Maruti Udyog, Reliance Energy, Reliance Industries, and Infosys Technologies shed around 2 per cent each.

Total traded turnover on both exchanges combined was around Rs 11,600 crore on Wednesday compared with around Rs 11,200 crore on Tuesday.

Market breadth on the BSE was negative with gainers trailing losers 1095:1408.

Among the second line indices, the CNX Midcap index and the CNX IT index closed marginally lower. This is the third consecutive day of losses clocked by technology shares and the second straight day of losses for midcap shares.

Midcap engineering shares continued to be in demand with Ingersoll Rand India rising over 9 per cent and Cummins India by over 4 per cent.

Among other prominent gainers, IFCI, Great Eastern Shipping, Tata Teleservices Maharashtra, Chemnnia Petroleum and Finolex Cables rose between 2-4 per cent.

Big losers among midcap shares included Morepen Laboratories, Bank of India, Himachal Futuristic, Wockhardt and Bharat Electronics, down between 3-5 per cent.