Nifty kisses 5k, ends flat

The Sensex ended flat on Thursday, although it touched a high of 16,820, up 143 points. The market opened on a positive note owing to positive cues from the Asian markets. The index pared gains in intra-day trades as weakness in Reliance and selective profit taking weighed on the market.

The Sensex gyrated between the zones and finally ended flat at 16,711, up 34 points.

The Nifty crossed the 5,000-mark today after May 23, 2008 and touched a high of 5,003, up 59 points from day's low. The NSE index closed at 4,965, up seven points.

Among the sectoral indices, IT index advanced 1.76% and auto index moved up 1.17%. On the other hand, oil & gas index plunged 3.28%, followed by realty which shed 1.41% on the BSE.

INDEX MOVERS....

ACC and Hindalco rallied 3.5% to Rs 828 and Rs 136, respectively.

Jaiprakash Associates, Maruti Suzuki and Bharti Airtel surged over 3% each to Rs 247, Rs 1,559 and Rs 433, respectively.

Grasim gained nearly 3% at Rs 2,769. Wipro gained 2% to Rs 566. Infosys, TCS and HDFC Bank added 1.5% each to Rs 2,361, Rs 580 and Rs 1,536, respectively.

Hindustan Unilever and Mahindra & Mahindra added over 1% each to Rs 260 and Rs 870, respectively.

Among the Nifty stocks, HCL Technologies climbed 5.5% to Rs 340.

...AND THE SHAKERS

Reliance slipped 4.5% to Rs 2,086 following the 10.5 million share block deal. Tata Steel declined nearly 2% to Rs 521 and ITC was down over 1% to Rs 228.