Market awaits Infosys numbers

The Sensex opened with a significant positive gap of 50 points at 12,416. The index soon surged to a high of 12,482 on the back of all-round buying led by Infosys.

However, weakness in select index stocks like HLL, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank and ONGC saw the index pare gains as the day progessed.

Continued selling pressure in the market saw the index dip into negative zone in late noon deals and touch a low of 12,341 - down 141 points from the day's high.

The Sensex finally ended on a flat note at 12,364 - down two points ahead of technology giant Infosys' September quarter results tomorrow.

The BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices ended flat at 5,300 and 6,414, respectively.

All sectoral indices, barring the BSE Consumer Durables index which gained 2.6% at 3,221, also ended on a flat note today.

The market breadth was positive. Out of 2,587 stocks traded, 1,362 advanced, 1,159 declined and the rest were unchanged today.

INDEX GAINERS & LOSERS

NTPC surged nearly 2% to Rs 132. HDFC advanced 1.6% to Rs 1,415.

HDFC Bank and Maruti moved up 1.3% each to Rs 945 and Rs 953, respectively. Tata Motors and Bharti Airtel added 1% each to Rs 912 and Rs 468, respectively.

Infosys touched a high of Rs 1,950, but closed at Rs 1,906 - up 0.5% (Rs 9).

TCS, Wipro, Dr.Reddy's and ACC were the other significant gainers today.

HLL dropped 2% to Rs 239. Tata Steel slipped 1.6% to Rs 518.

Reliance Communications, Hindalco and Reliance Energy shed 1% each to Rs 344, Rs 176 and Rs 465, respectively.

Larsen & Toubro and SBI were the other prominent losers today.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Atlanta topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 144.34 crore followed by Tata Steel (Rs 142.07 crore), Infosys (Rs 89.28 crore), IDFC (Rs 67.55 crore) and Reliance (Rs 60.10 crore).

IDFC led the volume chart with trades of around 93.87 lakh shares followed by Atlanta (54.08 lakh), Nocil (45.55 lakh), Gujarat Sidhee (40.85 lakh) and SAIL (40.47 lakh).