Sensex ends flat on Day 1

The Sensex began the new year on a bouyant note by opening with a positive gap of 24 points at 9422. The index soon scaled to touch a new, intra-day life-time peak of 9457.

However, the index paused there, and began to exhibit a range-bound movement. Selling pressure in select auto, technology and FCMG stocks saw the index shed all its gains and slip into the negative zone in noon deals to touch a low of 9366 - down 91 points from its peak.

The Sensex finally closed the first trading day of 2006 with a marginal loss of eight points at 9390.

The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices finished with solid gains of 1.3% and 1.4%, respectively, at 4485 and 6028. While the BSE Oil & Gas index gained 0.9% to 4451, the BSE Metal Index moved up 0.8% to 6536.

The BSE FMCG and TECk indices shed 0.7% each to 1636 and 2430, respectively. The BSE Auto Index ended 0.5% lower at 4233.

The market breadth remained positive throughtout the day - out of 2,582 stocks traded, 1,836 advanced, 699 declined and 47 were unchanged today.

ICICI Bank, which moved up 2.1% (Rs 12) to Rs 597, was the major gainer among the Sensex stocks. Hindalco at Rs 146, HDFC Bank at Rs 713, Maruti at Rs 645 and Ranbaxy at Rs 365 also finished with gains.

Reliance touched a new life-time high of Rs 902 before settling with 1% gain at Rs 899. Reliance Energy was up 1.2% at Rs 612.

ONGC gained 1.5% to close at Rs 1,193.

Tata Motors dropped 2% to Rs 639. Bharti Tele shed 1.8% to Rs 340 followed by Dr.Reddy's at Rs 963 and Hero Honda at Rs 846 - down 1.6% each.

HLL at Rs 195, ITC at Rs 141, Grasim at Rs 1,376 and NTPC at Rs 111 finished with a loss of 1% each.

Infosys at Rs 2,979, Satyam at Rs 731, TCS at Rs 1,690 and Wipro at Rs 461 also declined today.

Gujarat Narmada soared over 17% to Rs 125. FACT at Rs 36.50, Chambal Fertilisers at Rs 42, JB Chemicals at Rs 98, Dena Bank at Rs 33.75 and Tata Chemicals at Rs 250 finished with gains in the range of 6-8% each.

Nirma declined 2.5% to Rs 463. HCL Infosys also dropped 2.5% to Rs 270.

Gujarat Narmada topped the volume chart with 63.11 lakh shares changing hands today followed by ICICI Bank (45.24 lakh shares), Chambal Fertilisers (15.82 lakh shares), Reliance (13.26 lakh shares) and Reliance Capital (12.31 lakh shares).

ICICI Bank topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 271.21 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 118.92 crore), SBI (Rs 99.30 crore), Gujarat Narmada (Rs 75.74 crore) and Reliance Capital (Rs 54.48 crore).