Blue chips breather

STOCKS REPORT

In a volatile trading session, bottom picking after another fall helped the market recover to close in positive territory.

After trading in the red for almost the entire session, value buying coupled with short covering helped the market rebound, brokers said. Selling pressure across the board had dragged the market down as a continued weak sentiment took its toll.

Despite opening in positive territory, the benchmark Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex fell immediately as investors turned sellers but strong value buying in select blue-chips helped the market close above the break-even.

Consumer durables, pharma and metal scrips were among the biggest losers while select banking and cement counters recorded some gains on Monday. The breadth of the market was negative with losers outpacing gainers 3:1. In the Sensex basket, 16 out of the 30 scrips closed higher.

Amid alternate bouts of buying and selling, the BSE Sensex hit a high of 6,232.97 and a low of 6,087.55 in intra-day trades.

The Sensex finally closed at 6,194.07, up 20.25 points (0.33 per cent) from Friday's close. Volumes were lower than on Friday in the cash segment of the bourses; the BSE reported a turnover of Rs 1,924.67 crore and the NSE reported a turnover of Rs 4,610.89 crore.

A dealer from a local brokerage house said, "Despite some positive results, sentiment remains weak and the next big trigger could be the annual budget expected next month."

The undertone of the market remained cautious amid worries that foreign fund inflows may taper off this year on the back of a stronger dollar. Brokers said that they expect the market to be rangebound in the near term.

Market players said that lack of buying is being seen as investors are mostly discounting the good results and selling on bad news. "What we saw on Monday was a relief rally," brokers said.

Tata Power was the biggest gainer in the Sensex basket, up 4.73 per cent to close at Rs 359.50, followed by ACC, up 3.89 per cent to Rs 358.30, HDFC gained 2.82 per cent to Rs 753.65, Gujarat Ambuja Cement was up 2.14 per cent to Rs 434.40 and SBI gained 1.80 per cent to Rs 588.85.