Sensex ends up 50pts, still below 15K

The Sensex was very volatile in opening trades. After opening with a huge positive gap of 87 points at 15,023, the index soon dropped to a low of 14,897. Fresh buying at lower levels saw the index zoom to a high of 15,134 - an intra-day gain of 238 points. Profit-taking in closing deals saw the index finally settle with a gain of 50 points at 14,986.

The Bankex closed with a gain of over 1.5% at 7947. The BSE Realty Index was up 1.7% at 7458.

The market breadth was evenly matched - out of 2,640 scrips traded, 1,349 logged gains and 1,220 declined today.

INDEX GAINERS & LOSERS

SBI moved up nearly 3% (Rs 44) to Rs 1,593.

Tata Steel was up 2.7% at Rs 639.

RCom, BHEL and Reliance Energy gained over 2% each at Rs 542, Rs 1,699 and Rs 752, respectively.

Wipro dropped nearly 3% to Rs 462.

M&M and Tata Motors were down over 2% each at Rs 676 and Rs 652, respectively.

TCS, Infosys and Satyam dropped over 1% each to Rs 1,095, Rs 1,900 and Rs 466, respectively.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

SBI was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 179 crore followed by Everonn (Rs 154 crore), Reliance (Rs 150 crore), IFCI (Rs 146 crore) and HDIL (Rs 143 crore).