Despite displaying some strength when it rebounded off its lows in early afternoon trade and during the final minutes of the session when a few heavyweight stocks rallied on short-covering, the market signed off on a weak note today.
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While weak global markets kept investors away at the sidelines for a better part of the session, short-covering ahead of October series derivatives expiry aided the cause of a few front line stocks today. There were some good earnings reports but the mood was so cautious today that stocks failed to hold at higher levels due to lack of support.
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The Sensex, which opened marginally down at 16.335.78 and plunged to 16,144.17 in early trade, rebounded to 16,411.14 a little past noon but fell into the red swiftly and stayed weak till the very end of the session. The barometer finally closed at 16,283.49 with a loss of 69.91 points or 0.43%.
The Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange ended lower by 20.55 points or 0.42% at 4826.15, around 42 points off the day's low of 4784.10. The index touched a high of 4867 in intra-day trades.
With the Apex bank not relaxing mark-to-market rules for bank's debt holdings, bank stocks were seen struggling for a major part of the session today. However, thanks to strong buying at lower levels, several stocks in the banking space recovered well and regained a significant portion of lost ground in late afternoon trade.
Consumer durables and PSU stocks struggled. Auto stocks ended mostly lower today. Power, metal and FMCG stocks exhibited a mixed trend. Realty stocks bounced back in late afternoon trades. Oil, capital goods, information technology and pharma stocks found good support at lower levels.
Maruti Suzuki ended lower by nearly 4.5%. Tata Steel, HDFC, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank lost 3% - 3.75%. Reliance Communications, ONGC, Sterlite Industries, Reliance Infrastructure, NTPC, Hindalco, ACC (the stock ended lower despite strong results), Grasim Industries and BHEL drifted down by 1% - 2.5%. Mahindra & Mahindra, Hero Honda, Hindustan Unilever and ITC closed with modest losses.
Bharti Airtel held firm right through the day and ended stronger by 3.45%. Wipro moved up 3.2%. Tata Motors (2.65%), Reliance Industries (2.3%) and Larsen & Toubro (2%) also closed on a firm note. Sun Pharmaceuticals, State Bank of India and Infosys Technologies ended with modest gains. DLF edged up marginally. Tata Consultancy Services, Jaiprakash Associates and Tata Power ended flat.
Ranbaxy Laboratories notched up an impressive gain of 3.8%. Jindal Steel gained 3.7%. ABB, Unitech, Cipla and Punjab National Bank also closed with notable gains. Idea Cellular ended 0.85% up.
Suzlon Energy, BPCL, SAIL, Reliance Capital, Siemens, Ambuja Cements, Axis Bank, HCL Technologies, GAIL India, IDFC and Reliance Power ended on a weak note.
Andhra Bank, Hexaware, Cadila Healthcare, Sun TV Network and Lanco Infratech found good support on impressive results.
It was a highly listless session for several stocks from midcap and smallcap segments as well. The market breadth was weak. Out of 2757 stocks traded on BSE, 1627 stocks declined. 1059 stocks closed with gains and 71 stocks ended flat.
