The Sensex opened a tad higher at 13,772 - up six points, but soon slipped into negative zone on across-the-board selling pressure. Persistent selling, mainly in technology stocks, saw the index drop to a low of 13,612. buying in bank stocks late in the day saw the index recover smartly and bounce into positive zone. The Sensex rallied to a high of 13,806, up 194 points from the day's low, and finally finished with a gain of 16 points at 13,782. While the BSE Bankex gained 1.5% to 6851, the IT index was down nearly 1% at 4888. The market breadth was negative - out of 2,633 stocks traded, 1,405 declined, 1,124 advanced and 104 were unchanged today. BANK STOCKS SAVE THE DAY Renewed buying interest in bank stocks saved the day for the bulls. PSU banking major SBI soared nearly 4% to Rs 1,123. Private banking major ICICI Bank was up nearly 1% at Rs 849. Dena Bank zoomed to high of Rs 39.40 before settling with a gain of 6.5% at Rs 36.85 on news that the bank may be acquired by Canara Bank (up 2.2% at Rs 221). Federal Bank surged nearly 5% to Rs 257. Andhra Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Punjab National Bank, Union Bank and UTI Bank were up 1-2% each. Hero Honda rallied over 3% to Rs 701, and Reliance Energy surged 2.7% to Rs 5191. Tata Steel gained 1.7% at Rs 562. Bajaj Auto, Ranbaxy and Bharti Airtel moved up over 1% each to Rs 2,564, Rs 393 and Rs 825, respectively. TCS shed 2.5% to Rs 1,237. HLL and Cipla dropped 1.8% each to Rs 191 and Rs 208, respectively. ONGC slipped 1.4% to Rs 909. ACC and Infosys were down over 1% each to Rs 876 and Rs 1,981, respectively. VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS ICRA topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 250.14 crore followed by Indiabulls (Rs 188 crore), debutant Fortis (Rs 142 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs 103.30 crore) and Reliance (Rs 101.80 crore). IFCI led the volume chart with trades of around 1.78 crore shares followed by Fortis (1.38 crore), Nagarjuna Fertilisers (83.54 lakh), Tata Teleservices (83 lakh) and G V Films (70.85 lakh). |