Gains vanish at close; Sensex ends flat

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 35 points at 11,547. Fresh buying in the morning deals saw the index rally to a high of 11,620. The index, thereafter, exhibited range-bound movement through the morning session.

Profit-taking emerged around mid-noon deals, and the index began to pare gains. A heavy bout of selling towards the closing bell saw the index tumble into negative zone to a low of 11,461 - down 159 points from the day's high.

The Sensex finally settled with a marginal loss of nine points at 11,503.

The BSE Metal index gained 1.5% at 8214. The Healthcare index dropped 1% to 3518. The Auto, Oil & Gas and PSU indices slipped 0.5% each.

The market breadth was a tad negative - out of 2,598 stocks traded, 1,275 declined, 1,246 advanced and the rest were unchanged today.

INDEX MOVERS & SHAKERS

Reliance Energy gained nearly 3% to Rs 461. HDFC and HDFC Bank advanced over 2% each to Rs 1,318 and Rs 854, respectively.

Hindalco moved up 1.8% to Rs 164, and Tata Steel added 1.4% to Rs 515.

Hero Honda, ONGC and Larsen & Toubro were up around 1% each at Rs 704, Rs 1,202 and Rs 2,391, respectively.

Ranbaxy, Dr.Reddy's and BHEL dropped around 2% each to Rs 392, Rs 1,440 and Rs 2,238, respectively.

Tata Motors and HLL shed 1.5% each to Rs 846 and Rs 232, respectively.

NTPC and Infosys declined 1% each to Rs 123 and Rs 1,782, respectively.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 134.37 crore followed by Reliance Capital (Rs 90 crore), Bombay Dyeing (Rs 85.85 crore), Mahindra Gesco (Rs 75.55 crore) and Reliance Communications (Rs 65.62 crore).

G V Films led the volume chart with trades of around 78.60 lakh shares followed by Mascon Global (61 lakh), Alok Industries (40.53 lakh), LML (34.40 lakh) and Tata Teleservices (30.17 lakh).