It was a dismal start for the market this morning as weak global cues triggered heavy selling across the board and pushed the benchmark BSE index Sensex down by over 200 points within seconds of the opening bell.

And then, despite some selective buying in a few blue chips, including heavyweights Reliance Industries and ONGC, the market was seen struggling to wriggle out of trouble for around three hours. A sharp rally in early afternoon that lifted the market into the positive territory was followed by an equally sharp setback.

However, aided by frenzied buying in several blue chip stocks, the market finally managed to wipe off its losses and ended around its previous closing levels today. A fairly steady trend on the European bourses and slightly higher US index futures too aided the rebound.


While the Sensex, which was down by over 200 points at 14,016.95 in early trade, ended the day at 14,324.01 with a small loss of 2.21 points, the Nifty settled at 4247 with a marginal gain of 11.75 points. The Sensex rose to 14,394.19 during the final hour while the Nifty moved on to 4267.45.

Oil stocks, led by index majors Reliance Industries (3.3%) and ONGC (3.3%) closed with notable gains. Grasim Industries, the top gainer in the Sensex, moved up by 4.15%. Tata Motors, NTPC and HDFC ended higher by 2.25% - 2.75%.

Tata Power and BHEL gained nearly 2% today. Reliance Infrastructure, Ranbaxy Laboratories, State Bank of India, ACC and Hindustan Unilever closed with sharp to moderate gains. Jaiprakash Associates gained around a quarter per cent.

ICICI Bank (down 4.05%), HDFC Bank (down 3.55%), Hindalco (down 3.3%), ITC (down 3.1%), Sterlite Industries (down 2.8%), DLF (down 2.05%), Larsen & Toubro (down 1.6%) and Infosys Technologies (down 1.1%) declined sharply.

Maruti Suzuki, Tata Consultancy Services, Bharti Airtel, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Steel and Wipro also ended with notable losses. Sun Pharmaceuticals and Reliance Communications ended marginally down.

HCL Technologies, Siemens, Reliance Power, Power Grid Corporation and BPCL were among the prominent gainers in the Nifty. Cairn India and SAIL posted modest gains.

Nalco eased by 6.35%. Punjab National Bank, Hero Honda, Axis Bank, Jindal Steel, Tata Communications, ABB and Suzlon Energy also closed with sharp losses today.

Godrej Consumer Products shot up by over 12% today. Lanco Infratech gained more than 7%. Yes Bank, Indian Hotels, Alstom Projects, IDFC, Financial Technologies and Gujarat Mineral gained 6.5% - 7%.

IRB Infrastructure moved up by nearly 6% on reports of a new order win. LIC Housing Finance gained 5.8%. Exide Industries, Jai Corp, MMTC, Gujarat NRE Coke, India Infoline, REI Agro, Indian Bank and Hindustan Copper also closed on a firm note.

Besides a hot of large cap stocks, several midcap and smallcap stocks too bounced back into the positive territory in afternoon trade. The market breadth was weak at close but the gap between advances and declines had narrowed down to a marked extent by then.

Out of 2639 stocks traded on BSE today, 1455 stocks declined and 1116 stocks posted gains. 68 stocks ended flat.