The Sensex roared back into positive zone after being hammered in early trades today. The, index had tumbled to an intra-day low of 11,345 - down 490 points - minutes after the opening bell.
The fall was due to Sebi's interim order, issued late on Thursday, banning select big brokerage houses owing to their alleged involvement in the IPO scam. Sebi, today morning, clarified that the ban was applicable only on proprietary trading and would not affect the clients of the banned brokerages.
Steady buying thereafter saw the index recoup losses. Heavy buying towards the close saw the index rebound into positive zone and touch a high of 11,877 - up 532 points from the day's low.
The Sensex finally closed with a gain of 17 points at 11,852.
The Nifty closed flat at 3,508.
Mirroring the Sensex movement, the sectoral indices, too, bounced from lower levels today.
The market breadth was slightly negative - out of 2,511 stocks traded, 1,440 declined, 1,018 advanced and 53 were unchanged today.
Scam: Investors need not worry, says Sebi
IPO scam: 24 operators banned
Bull Run? Beware of being scammed
INDEX MOVERS & SHAKERS
NTPC, which slipped to a low of Rs 125, soared 5% to Rs 136.
Hero Honda zoomed 3.3% to Rs 850, and Maruti rallied 2.4% to Rs 920.
ACC surged 2% to Rs 952 after hitting a low of Rs 900. ICICI Bank dropped to a low of Rs 525, but gained nearly 2% to close at Rs 577. TCS added 1.6% to Rs 1,982.
Reliance hit a low of Rs 97 before finally closing above the Rs 1,000-mark for the first time at Rs 1,008.
Bharti Tele bounced from a low of Rs 377 to close with a gain of 1% at Rs 406.
Cipla dropped 2.7% to Rs 253, and Satyam dropped 2.3% to Rs 749.
Hindalco shed 2% to Rs 213, and Tata Steel declined nearly 1% to Rs 634.
OTHER GAINERS & LOSERS
Dabur India zoomed 11.5% to Rs 156. Datamatic Technology, Godrej Industries, Orient Paper, Opto Circuits, Shah Alloy, Ajanta Pharma, Sterlite Industries, Escorts, Cadila Healthcare, Zee, Hinduja TMT, Century Textiles, Hindustan Zinc and Ashok Leyland were the other major gainers today.
R Systems plunged 10.7% to Rs 220. Indiabulls, Sun Iron & Steel, Tata Sponge, Patni Computers, Aarvee Denims, RPG Life Science, NRB Bearings, Onward Tech, Ultratech Cemco, RCF, SAIL, Sun TV, Dena Bank, Geometric Software, National Fertilisers, Ispat Industries and Mastek were the other major losers.
VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS
Debutant Tantia Construction topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 230.79 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 213.49 crore), Hindustan Zinc (Rs 177.70 crore), Indiabulls (Rs 168.25 crore) and Satyam (Rs 123.88 crore).
Tantia Construction also led the volume chart with trades of around 1.06 crore shares followed by JP Hydro-power (70 lakh), Indiabulls (63.33 lakh), Ashok Leyland (56.28 lakh) and Emkay Share (53 lakh).
Despite the Sebi's clarification that retail investors need not panic over the ban on brokerages which will be applicable only on their proprietary accounts, the markets crashed as soon as they opened on Friday.
Sebi clarified that the ban on the broking firms is applicable only to their own account (proprietary) trading by them.
Clients of these brokerages, who have demat (trading) accounts with them will be free to trade as usual.
On Thursday, Sebi had banned 24 key operators in connection with the IPO scam. Indiabulls Securities, Anagram, and Karvy Stock Broking are among the 24 operators that have been barred.
