The markets seemingly decided to pause after running ahead in the previous session. The barometer index struck a fresh 25-month high in afternoon trades and came within kissing distasnce of the 18k mark, but the milestone will have to wait for another day. The Sensex moved in a narrow range of around 90 points before ending at 17941, higher by five points, and the Nifty closed at 5366, down two points.
There was a lot of activity in the broader space though. The mid-cap and small-cap indices added around half a percent each at 7013 and 8921 respectively. In the mid-cap space, Essar Shipping strengthened by 11% at Rs 92, Great Eastern Shipping added 2.8% at Rs 316 and Indian Overseas Bank rose by 5.7% at Rs 100. And in the small-cap space, Essel Propack hit the upper circuit of 20% at Rs 199, while Essel Propack spurted by 18% at Rs 52 and Mahindra Lifespace Developers firmed up by 13% at Rs 449. And the market breadth was strong, with 1743 advancing stocks as against 1168 declines.
Among the gainers, BHEL strengthened by 2.8% at Rs 2528 and Reliance Communications added 2.6% at Rs 177. ICICI Bank and HDFC were the other major gainers. Realty stocks were in demand, with DLF, Sobha Developers and Ansal Properties rising 2%-6% each. And metal stocks extended their previous day's gains, on the back of firm prices on the London Metal Exchange overnight, with Tata Steel, Sail and Sterlite adding about a percent each.
The top losers were M&M (weakened by 2.3% at Rs 534), Maruti (shed 1.3% at Rs 1376) and Jaiprakash Associates (lost 1.2% at Rs 152). Information technology stocks fell as the rupee hit a 19-month high against the dollar. Infosys, TCS and Wipro lost about a per cent each at Rs 2649, Rs 794 and Rs 715 respectively. And index heavyweight Reliance Industries ended marginally lower at Rs 1121.
Tata Steel topped the value charts on the BSE with a total turnover of Rs 93.24 crore. This was followed by Reliance Industries (Rs 67.07 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 47.86 crore), Reliance Infra (Rs 40.28 crore) and SBI (Rs 34.23 crore).
Reliance Communications led the volume charts with trades of 2.11 million. It was followed by Tata Steel (1.478 million), DLF (1.477 million), ICICI Bank (1.05 million) and Jaiprakash Associates (0.95 million).
