The Sensex opened three points higher over its previous close at 7,346. After touching an early high of 7,381 on selective buying, the market sentiment displayed a range-bound (positive) trend following sluggish activity in most of the counters.
The market witnessed a steady fall from higher levels in early noon trades, and by mid-noon trades sharp correction across-the-board dragged the Sensex below the 7,300-mark to a low of 7,276 - down 105 points from the day's high.
The Sensex, however, on marginal recovery in select stocks towards the fag-end, finally ended the session above the 7,300-mark at 7,304 - down 39 points.
The Nifty ended at 2,231, at a loss of 7 points.
While nine Sensex stocks advanced, 21 declined today. Advancing shares registered a volume of 44 lakh for Rs 165.34 crore, and declining shares accounted for a volume of 82 lakh amounting to Rs 439.45 crore.
The breadth of the market was weak today. Of 2,591 scrips traded on the BSE, 1,107 advanced, 1,439 declined and 45 ended unchanged.
ITC declined 1.80% (Rs 30) to Rs 1,642. While Reliance Energy dipped 1.79% (Rs 12) to Rs 635, HLL slipped a per cent (Rs 2) to Rs 159. Reliance Industries ended a tad lower at Rs 679.
Infosys lost a per cent (Rs 23) to Rs 2,210. While TCS shrinked 1.36% (Rs 18) to Rs 1,290, Wipro ended with a per cent loss (Rs 5) at Rs 711. Satyam, however, on steady Q1 earnings report, gained 1.41% (Rs 7) to Rs 511.
SBI lost 2% (Rs 15) to Rs 709. While ICICI Bank (down Rs 2 to Rs 438) also ended at lower levels, HDFC Bank was up a per cent (Rs 4) at Rs 641.
Bajaj and Hero Honda were down a per cent each at Rs 1,389 (down Rs 8) and Rs 609 (down Rs 6), respectively. While Tata Motors dropped 1.87% (Rs 9) to Rs 461, Maruti, however, ended higher at Rs 463.
L&T tumbled 3.76% (Rs 49) to Rs 1,247. Bharti, in a bearish market, rose 1.52% (Rs 4) to Rs 254.
Capital goods stocks attracted strong buying support. Havell India soared 19% (Rs 83) to Rs 522. While Atlas Copcol shot up 7.57% (Rs 66) to Rs 943, Greaves Cotton moved up 5.34% (Rs 10) to Rs 190. Astra Micro, Gammon India, HMT and Elgi Equipments added gains between 1-5%.
Select IT scrips, too, had a decent outing. Polaris Lab jumped 8.88% (Rs 12) to Rs 146. Mastek, which reported a consolidated net of Rs 53 crore in FY05, advanced 4.35% (Rs 15) to Rs 369. While i-flex added 2.75% (Rs 24) to Rs 907, Visual Software was up 1.60% at Rs 136. HCL Infosys, Flextronics and NIIT also finished in the green.
BPL, which was acquired by Essar yesterday, however, lost 1.20% to Rs 62. Whirlpool, Titan, Su-raj Diamond, Samtel Color, Mirc Electronics and Videocon International all ended at lower levels.
Himachal Futuristics clocked a huge volume of over 1.56 crore on the BSE, followed by Zigma Software (1.44 crore), Petronet LNG (1.09 crore) and ITI (73.49 lakh), respectively.
Satyam led the value chart with a turnover of Rs 111 crore, followed by Reliance (Rs 101 crore), Tisco (Rs 69 crore) and SBI (Rs 44 crore), respectively.
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