After yesterday's over 200 points fall, the Sensex opened on an absolutely flat note at 16,796. Strong global cues gave a phillip to the BSE index and the Sensex soared 217 points to a high of 17,007. However, significant selling pressure in India's most valuable company, Reliance, coupled with capital goods majors - BHEL and Larsen & Toubro - dragged the market down to a low of 16,765 - down 242 points. The Sensex finally ended with a marginal gain of 21 points at 16,811.
The Nifty ended flat at 4,997 - up eight points.
The market breadth was almost neutral. Out of 2,851 shares traded 1,414 advanced while 1,327 declined.
INDEX SHAKERS...
Sensex heavy-weight, Reliance dropped over 4% to Rs 2,047 - which resulted to a 95 points loss for the Sensex. The stock slipped after its partner's Hardy Oil announced plans to abandon one of its well from the KG basin field. According to reports, Hardy Oil stock tumbled around 36%, while the company held 10% stake in the said well, the balance stake is held by Reliance. On its part, however, Reliance clarified that work is on on the said field, and further clarifications will be done later.
Grasim shed 3% to Rs 2,150. Larsen & Toubro slipped for the second day after its Q2 results. The stock dipped 2.3% to Rs 1,571.
Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Bharti Airtel, BHEL, Reliance Infrastructure, Hero Honda and Reliance Communications were the other index losers.
...AND THE MOVERS
FMCG major, ITC, jumped 5% to Rs 260 on better-than-expected Q2 numbers. Mahindra & Mahindra and Maruti Suzuki added over 2% each to Rs 926 and Rs 1,517, respectively.
IT stocks held on to gains. Infosys, TCS and Wipro moved up 2% each to Rs 2,260, Rs 641 and Rs 589, respectively.
Banking stocks like ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and SBI contributed to the index's upmove through the day. ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank advanced 1.5% each while SBI was up 1.2%.
