The Sensex opened with a negative gap of 112 points at 14,338 on the back of weak cues from the global markets. Buying in technology stocks, however, stemmed the downmove.
The index touched a low of 14,286 and thereafter exhibited steady movement for most part of the trading day. Fresh buying in select auto and banking stocks in late noon trades helped the index recoup its losses and rebound into the positive zone.
The Sensex touched a high of 14,495, and finally ended with a gain of 32 points at 14,482.
The BSE Bankex rallied 1.7% to 6,863, and the Auto index surged 1.3% to 3,916. The Oil & Gas index, however, slipped over 1% to 9,768.
The market breadth was negative - out of 2,692 stocks traded, 1,389 declined, 1,199 advanced and 104 were unchanged today.
INDEX MOVERS...
HDFC Bank soared almost 4% to Rs 1,255. ICICI Bank has advanced 1.7% to Rs 667, and SBI added 1% to Rs 1,371.
Satyam surged over 3% to Rs 406. Wipro rallied over 2% to Rs 429, and TCS gained 1.8% at Rs 832.
BHEL and Mahindra & Mahindra moved up 2% each to Rs 1,722 and Rs 574, respectively.
Reliance Infrastructure gained 1.7% at Rs 1,002. Hindustan Unilever added 1.5% to Rs 248.
Ranbaxy advanced 1.3% to Rs 519. Maruti, ITC and Hindalco were up 1% each at Rs 632, Rs 186 and Rs 136, respectively.
...AND THE SHAKERS
Reliance dropped 2.3% to Rs 2,180.
Jaiprakash Associates shed nearly 2% at Rs 157, and Tata Steel declined 1.4% to Rs 578.
VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS
Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 283.30 crore followed by Reliance Capital (Rs 248.20 crore), Reliance Natural Resources (Rs 173 crore), Vishal Info (Rs 158.45 crore) and Infosys (Rs 116.60 crore).
Reliance Natural Resources led the volume chart with trades of around 1.86 crore shares followed by Pennar Industries (1.81 crore), Firstsource Solutions (87.85 lakh), Marksans Pharma (72.50 lakh) and IFCI (63.26 lakh).
