Sensex ends 34 points down despite some late buying

The market started off on a weak note on negative cues from Asian bourses, and despite staging a couple of smart rallies past mid afternoon following a recovery in Europe amid signs of an improvement in the German economy, ended the session with modest losses on Monday as investors treaded cautiously ahead of release of crucial quarterly results and economic reports.

Amid lingering worries about the European economy, Asian markets drifted lower on Monday, rendering the mood a bit bearish on the Indian bourses. Bargain hunting and stock specific stories lifted a few front line stocks to higher levels, but the market never found enough momentum to surge higher.

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The Sensex, which declined to 15,678.30 in the first hour, rallied to 15,871.51 past mid afternoon, but ended the session in negative territory at 15,814.72 with a loss of 34.08 points or 0.22%. The Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange settled at 4742.80, around 16 points off the day's high of 4758.70, recording a loss of 4.10 points or 0.09%. The Nifty touched a low of 4695.45 in morning trades.

Power, realty and capital goods stocks moved higher on some hectic buying past mid afternoon. Mirroring strong gains posted by key stocks in these sectors, the BSE Power, Realty and CG indices moved up by 1.57%, 1.48% and 1.33% respectively.

Select pharmaceuticals, consumer durables and PSU stocks too posted impressive gains. Bank and metal stocks regained most of the lost ground and ended well off the day's lows. Information technology stocks mostly ended unchanged. FMCG, automobile and oil stocks traded weak. Midcap and smallcap stocks had a good outing.

Bharti Airtel ended 2.9% down. State Bank of India lost nearly 2%. Coal India, Tata Motors and Bajaj Auto lost around 1.5%, while Reliance Industries and Wipro ended lower by a little over 1%.

Hindustan Unilever and GAIL India too ended notably lower. GAIL India, which replaced Jaiprakash Associates in the Sensex, closed lower by nearly half a percent.

Among the gainers in the Sensex, BHEL surged 3.15%. Jindal Steel gained 2.9% and Cipla closed with a gain of 2.5%. Maruti Suzuki (1.8%), Tata Power (1.7%) and Sun Pharmaceuticals (1.1%) also posted strong gains. HDFC Bank, DLF and Larsen & Toubro gained 0.6% - 0.9%.

IDFC, Punjab National Bank, Power Grid Corporation, Reliance Power, Siemens, SAIL, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Axis Bank, Grasim Industries and Reliance Infrastructure closed with sharp to moderate gains.

Sesa Goa lost more than 2%. Cairn India, BPCL, Reliance Communications and Ambuja Cements also ended notably lower.

GMR Infrastructure gained nearly 8.5% on reports Maldives authorities have allowed the company to collect airport development and insurance charges from passengers at the Male International Airport. Another positive trigger for the stock was the proposal of the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority to hike tariff at the Delhi airport.

Lanco Infratech, Wockhardt, MMTC, Shree Renuka Sugars, Indiabulls Real Estate, JSW Ispat, Aurobindo Pharma and Alstom Projects gained 6% - 9%.

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Hindustan Copper, Unitech, Crisil, Voltas, Educomp Solutions, Canara Bank, HDIL, Mundra Port, ABB, Biocon and Mphasis also rose sharply.

Sintex Industries, Jain Irrigation Systems, United Spirits, Bata India, Coromandel International, NMDC, Gujarat Minerals, Jubilant Foodworks and Pantaloon Retail were some of the prominent losers.

The market breadth was fairly strong. Out of 2822 stocks traded on BSE, 1638 stocks moved up. 1080 stocks declined and 104 stocks ended flat.