Mirroring meltdown in global markets, the Sensex opened with a huge negative gap of 445 points at 13,086, and soon touched a low of 13,052. The index, thereafter, steadied and exhibited rangebound movement till noon deals.
Renewed buying interest in select heavyweights like SBI and Reliance helped the index recoup losses in the latter half of the trading day. Aggressive buying coupled with short-covering saw the index rebound into the positive zone at the fag end of the day.
The Sensex touched a high of 13,556 - a gain of 504 points from the day's low - and finally settled with a marginal loss of 12 points at 13,519.
The market breadth, however, was fairly negative - out of 2,711 stocks traded, 1,749 advanced and 890 declined today.
INDEX MOVERS...
SBI soared 6.5% to Rs 1,586. Sterlite surged 2.7% to Rs 478.
Reliance rallied 2.4% to Rs 1,928.
ITC, HDFC Bank and Tata Motors advanced over 2% each to Rs 194, Rs 1,230 and Rs 398, respectively.
BHEL and Bharti Airtel were up over 1% each at Rs 1,647 and Rs 775, respectively.
...AND THE SHAKERS
ICICI Bank slumped 5.8% to Rs 591. Jaiprakash Associates plunged over 5% to Rs 140.
Maruti tumbled 3.5% to Rs 698. Ranbaxy and Satyam slipped over 3% each to Rs 406 and Rs 356, respectively.
Wipro, Tata Steel and DLF dropped around 2.5% each to Rs 392, Rs 488 and Rs 423, respectively.
ACC declined nearly 2% to Rs 583. Tata Power and TCS shed 1.6% each at Rs 976 and Rs 750, respectively.
HDFC and Hindalco were down over 1% each at Rs 2,179 and Rs 114, respectively.
VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS
Reliance Capital topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 357.70 crore followed by ICICI Bank (Rs 324.85 crore), Bharti Airtel (Rs 258 crore), Reliance (Rs 253.40 crore) and HDFC (Rs 240 crore).
Reliance Natural Resources led the volume chart with trades of around 1.50 crore shares followed by IFCI (1.06 crore), Ispat Industries (70.50 lakh), Chambal Fertilisers (64.65 lakh) and GVK Power (56 lakh).
