Choppy day: Sensex ends 70 points up

The Indian bourses opened at 17,088 tracking lacklustre global cues. The Sensex slipped into the red to touch a low of 17,054.

The index kept on swinging zones for most part of the day owing to activity taking place in certain select stocks.The Sensex however gained strenghth towards the end of the trading session to soar to a high of 17,214, up 160 points from the day's low.

The Sensex finally ended the choppy session at 17,167, up 69 points. The NSE Nifty shut shop at 5,133, up 17 points.

The BSE Midcap and the smallcap indices were flat today.

The market breadth was extremely negative, out of 2,911 shares traded, 1,756 declined and 1,083 advanced so far on the BSE.

Among the sectors, auto index declined 1% to 7,572. Amtek Auto and Exide Industries were the main losers on the index, down 2% each.

IT and Banking indices on the other hand added 1% each.

Stock like Maninfracontruction settled at 37% premium to Rs 347 on its first day of listing.

Index gainers...

Sun Pharma advanced 3% to Rs 1,691. Sterlite, Bharti Airtel and Wipro added 2% each to Rs 820, Rs 293 and Rs 709, respectively.

ICICI Bank, TCS, Grasim, NTPC and Infosys added 1% each.

...and the shakers

Hindustan Unilever was the major dragger, down 4% to Rs 228. Hindalco, Reliance Communication and ACC slipped 1% each on the BSE.