Following yesterday's sharp spike coupled with strong cues from the overseas markets, the Sensex today jumped in early trades. The index soon touched a high of 18,238 as better-than-expected earnings from Wipro also boosted the sentiment.
However, profit taking in realty and metal stocks saw the index pare gains and slip into red to a low of 18,094 - down 144 points from the day's high. The Sensex, thereafter, exhibited volatility on bouts of buying and selling as traders awaited cues from the European markets.
After swinging in and out of the negative zone, the Sensex finally ended with a marginal gain of 18 points at 18,131. The NSE Nifty was up seven points at 5,449.
The European markets opened on a jittery note ahead of the 91 banks stress test later today. The FTSE 100 was down 0.3%, while the CAC 40 and DAX were up around 0.3% each. Yesterday, the US markets ended on a firm note riding on strong corporate earnings. The Dow surged 2% (202 points), and the Nasdaq added 59 points to 2,246.
Elsewhere in Asia, the Nikkei rallied over 2% to 9,431. The Hang Seng gained 1% at 20,815. The Taiwan and Seoul Composite indexes were also up over 1% each. The Shanghai ended marginally higher.
The BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices ended in red, as a result of which the breadth was negative. The BSE Mid-cap index was down 0.3% at 7,433, and the Small-cap index was down 0.5% at 9,439.
INDEX MOVERS...
Bharti Airtel surged nearly 4% to Rs 314. BHEL gained 1.7% at Rs 2,460.
ITC and Infosys were up around 1% each.
...AND THE SHAKERS
Jaiprakash Associates shed 1.7% at Rs 129. ONGC and DLF dropped 1.5% each to Rs 1,258 and Rs 322, respectively.
NTPC, Sterlite and Jindal Steel were down over 1% each.
Wipro which soared around 4% in early trades on the back of better-than-expected earnings finally ended nearly 1% lower at Rs 412.
Among the realty space, HDIL tumbled over 3% to Rs 270. Unitech and Orbit Corp declined around 2% each. Peninsula Land and Indiabulls Realestate were the other notable losers. On the other hand, Sobha Developers gained 2.5%. DB Realty and Phoenix Mills also ended with notable gainers.
Hindustan Zinc led the losers list in the metal pack, down 2% at Rs 988. Welcorp, Jindal Saw and National Aluminium were the other prominent losers.
MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS
BF Utilities topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 246.63 crore on the BSE followed by Tata Steel (Rs 122.07 crore), JSW Steel (Rs 116.61 crore), United Breweries Holdings (Rs 104.67 crore) and United Breweries (Rs 94.50 crore).
Karuturi Global led the volume chart with trades of around 38.96 million shares. It was followed by FCS Software (31.26 million), Cals Refineries (21.98 million), IFCI (15.06 million) and Shree Astavinayak (15.06 million).
