Sensex ends 71 pts up : Sify Finance

Sensex ends 71 pts up
Sensex gains 71 pts amid FII pullout
Sensex ends up 71pts; IFCI drops 23%

NSE 5766.50 15.35

BSE 19162.57 70.61

Information technology stocks opened on a bright note and stayed firm right till the end even as stocks from other sectors had a choppy outing as investors appeared highly reluctant to carry home positions ahead of a long weekend. The somewhat subdued trend in global markets also appeared to have forced the participants on to a slightly defensive approach today.

The Sensex, which opened with a positive gap of nearly 120 points at 19,210.22, hit a high of 19,291.14 in intra-day trades and settled at 19,162.57 with a gain of 70.61 points or 0.375. The Nifty ended with a gain of 0.27% or 15.35 points at 5766.50, well down from a high of 5799.50 it had touched in afternoon trade.

While the BSE IT index ended stronger by 3.34%, the Teck index, which has software, media and telecom stocks in its fold, moved up by around 1.5%. The Capital Goods and FMCG indices declined sharply. PSU, Power, Oil & Gas, Bankex, CD and HC indices also ended in the negative territory.

A number of midcap and smallcap stocks went down on sustained selling in afternoon trade.
Satyam Computer Services, which moved up by nearly 6%, was the biggest gainer in the Sensex today. Infosys Technologies, contributing significantly to the market's positive close, gained 3.7%. Tata Consultancy Services surged 2.35% while Wipro, which remained somewhat subdued for a better part of the day, ended with a sharp gain of 1.8%.

Power stock Reliance Energy gained more than 3%. Automobile major Tata Motors rallied 2.9% to Rs 824.80. Mahindra & Mahindra advanced by a little over a percent. Realty stock DLF gained 1.1%.
Bajaj Auto, Bharti Airtel, ONGC, State Bank of India and Reliance Industries finished with modest gains while Hindustan Unilever, Hindalco and Tata Steel edged up marginally.
ACC (down 2.75%), Cipla (down 2%), ITC (down 1.65%), Ranbaxy Laboratories (down 1.65%) and BHEL (down 1.3%) closed with sharp losses. Grasim Industries, HDFC, Reliance Communications and HDFC Bank eased by 0.5% - 1%. Larsen & Toubro, ICICI Bank and Maruti Suzuki also ended weak. Ambuja Cements and NTPC ended almost unchanged from their previous closing levels.
Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, HCL Technologies, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Cairn India, BPCL, SAIL and Tata Power were among the major gainers from the Nifty. GlaxoSmithKline Pharma ended with a sharp loss of 5.6%. VSNL, a big gainer yesterday, lost 4.65% on profit taking. Suzlon Energy, ABB, Zee Entertainment, Hero Honda, GAIL India, Reliance Petroleum and Nalco also closed with sharp losses.

IFCI plunged sharply and ended lower by 23.25% at Rs 76.85 on sustained selling today. The stock got hammered due to the company calling off its stake sale plan after talks with the Sterlite-Morgan Stanley combine ended in disagreements over the price and management control.

IFCI opened at Rs 98 - it remained its high for the day - and hit a low of Rs 71.05 before settling for the day at Rs 76.85 with a big loss. On the National Stock Exchange, the IFCI counter recorded a turnover of Rs 1104.75 crore on a volume of around 143 million shares.
The market breadth, which remained positive till around mid afternoon, turned negative as the session progressed. Out of 2950 stocks traded on BSE today, 1755 stocks closed with losses. 1164 stocks finished on a positive note and 31 stocks ended at their previous closing levels.

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