Sensex ends up 18pts, cement stocks drop again

The Sensex opened 32 points higher at 12,917. After exhibiting volatility in early trades, the index surged to a high of 13,057 on steady buying in BHEL, HDFC, TCS, Bharti, HLL and Wipro.

Unabated selling in ITC and cement shares saw the index pare gains and slip into negative zone in the latter half of the day. The index soon dropped to a low of 12,845 - down 212 points from the day's high. The index, however, rebounded at close, and finally finished with a marginal gain of 18 points at 12,903.

The BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices advanced around 1% each to 5277 and 6318, respectively.

Most of the sectoral indices ended with marginal gains. While Auto index rallied over 1% to 4898, the FMCG index shed 1.4% at 1665.

The market breadth was positive - out of 2,614 stocks traded, 1,540 advanced, 1,017 declined and 57 were unchanged today.

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Bharti Airtel surged 2.6% to Rs 770. TCS and Larsen & Toubro rallied around 2% each to Rs 1,238 and Rs 1,510, respectively.

Cipla, ONGC and Wipro gained around 1.5% each at Rs 233, Rs 793 and Rs 573, respectively.

Maruti, ICICI Bank, Tata Motors, HDFC and Hero Honda advanced over 1% each to Rs 797, Rs 870, Rs 764, Rs 1,584 and Rs 698, respectively.

Cement stocks continued to wilt under selling pressure. Gujarat Ambuja and ACC shed over 4% each to Rs 105 and Rs 748, respectively. Grasim dropped nearly 3% to Rs 2,014.

ITC plunged 3.5% to Rs 149. HDFC Bank tumbled 3% to Rs 951.

Reliance Energy and Reliance Communications slipped 1.5% each to Rs 474 and Rs 416, respectively.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

MindTree Consulting topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 436.15 crore followed by Century Textiles (Rs 120.30 crore), Idea Cellular (Rs 110.35 crore), Reliance (Rs 98.55 crore) and Reliance Communications (Rs 97.75 crore).

IFCI led the volume chart with trades of around 1.41 crore shares followed by Idea Cellular (1.25 crore), MindTree Consulting (59.75 lakh), IDFC (41.95 lakh) and Euro Ceramics (39.88 lakh).