The Sensex opened 130 points up at 17,453, tracking positive cues from the global markets.
Profit booking in the oil & gas and consumer durable stocks made the index slip into the negative zone to touch a low of 17,185. The BSE benchmark index attempeted recovery towards the end, which was short lived as the index slipped back into red. The Sensex finally ended at 17,223, down 100 points.
Despite overall choppiness the BSE realty, metal and IT indices ended on a positive note.
The NSE Nifty ended at 5,114, down 27 points.
The market breadth was fairly negative, out of 2,844 shares traded, 1,471 declined and 1,322 advanced on the BSE.
The BSE Realty and the metal indices were up nearly 1% each at 4,729 and 15,911, respectively.
The Oil & gas index on the other hand was down over 1.7% at 10,511, respectively.
INDEX SHAKERS...
Mahindra & Mahindra and Reliance Communications tumbled 3% each to Rs 908 and Rs 231, respectively.
ONGC and Reliance slipped around 2% each to Rs 1,208 and Rs 2,184, respectively.
Grasim Industries, Hindustan Unilever and ACC were down over 1.5% each.
...AND THE INDEX MOVERS
Hindalco soared 5% to Rs 141. Tata Steel, TCS and Jaiprakash Associates advanced over 2% each to Rs 575, Rs 621 and Rs 265, respectively.
Wipro, Maruti, DLF and NTPC were the other marginal gainers, up over 1% each.
VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS
DLF topped the value chart on the BSE with a turnover of Rs 162.51 crore. It was followed by SBI (138 crore), Reliance (135.46 crore), RNRL (Rs 134.57 crore) and Educomp solution (133.69 crore).
Cals Refineries led the volume chart with trades of 99.44 million shares. It was followed by RNRL (15.07 million), Ispat (9.97 million), GVK Powerline (9.61 million) and Unitech (8.83 million) shares on the BSE.