Blue chips aid rebound

STOCKS REPORT

The markets recovered marginally on bargain buying in select blue-chip counters during the tail-end of the trading session yesterday.

The Bombay Stock Exchange's 30-stock index, Sensex, closed with a gain of 4.43 points at 5,525.09, while the National Stock Exchange's (NSE) S&P CNX Nifty, a broader index, gave ground by losing 14.05 points to end at 1,749.35.

The markets witnessed extreme volatility on alternate bouts of selling and buying. The Sensex touched a high of 5,551.92 and a low of 5,434.97 in intraday trades. The breadth of the market was negative as losers outnumbered gainers by 1208-to-511.

The cash market turned over Rs 2,630.38 crore on the BSE and Rs 5,497.05 crore on the NSE.

In sectoral indices, the BSE's PSU index was the biggest gainer (up 1.12 per cent) at 3807.39 points, while the FMCG index was the largest lower with a 1.51 per cent fall.

Players indicate to a number of reasons "" from blockage of money in the public offers to selling for advance tax payments "" for the current weakness in the markets.

Analysts, particularly technical watchers, have pointed out that the Sensex has broken the crucial 5,550 levels and may weaken further in the short term.

Share in the bikes major Hero Honda Motor were up 6.58 per cent to Rs 479.70, those in Tata Motors lost 1.50 per cent to Rs 460.80. ONGC rose 5.84 per cent to Rs 834.

Wipro was up 2.99 per cent to Rs 1,462.35, Satyam Computer was up 2.49 per cent to Rs 298.15 and Infosys Technologies was up 0.48 per cent to Rs 4,949.20. ICICI Bank was up 2.08 per cent to Rs 284.

L&T was up 1.34 per cent to Rs 559.70 while Grasim was down 2.59 per cent to Rs 1,041.75 and Gujarat Ambuja Cements was down 0.82 per cent to Rs 282.75. Bharti Tele-Ventures fell 4.01 per cent to Rs 144.85.

Heavyweights Hindustan Lever was down 1.92 per cent to Rs 150.95, ITC fell 1.24 per cent to Rs 1,086.35, State Bank of India was down 0.68 per cent to Rs 572.10 and Reliance Industries fell 0.14 per cent to Rs 542.20. CMC was down 5.89 per cent to Rs 538.10.