Market closes higher in volatile trading

29 October 2008

The markets ended with marginal gains, amid high volatility on the settlement day. Buying was seen in metal, oil, and few technology stocks. However, pharma, FMCG, and select realty and capital goods lagged in today's session.

The Sensex swung 403.42 points in today's session, while hitting an intrday high of 9,297.76 and low of 8,894.34. It closed higher by 36.43 points or 0.4% at 9,044.51. The Nifty remained rangebound between a high/low of 2781.25 and 2631.90. It rose 0.46% or 12.45 points, to settle at 2697.05.

The Sensex and Nifty were down at around 33% each in the October series. CNX Midcap and BSE Small Cap indices fell 35% and 40%, respectively. The worst hit sectors were BSE Metals and Realty, which lost 53% and 50%, respectively. BSE Capital Goods and Oil & Gas indices tumbled 40% each. About 70 F&O stocks lost over 50% in this series. Among the frontliners, Suzlon Energy fell 75% and Reliance Industries tanked 40%. Tata Motors and Tata Steel plunged 60% each.

Among the frontliners, Hindalco and Tata Communication jumped 18% and 12%, respectively. Mahindra & Mahindra, Wipro, ACC, Sterlite Industries, Reliance Industries, Ambuja Cements and BPCL rose 4.5-8%.

However, Suzlon Energy, Reliance Communication and Ranbaxy Labs lost 10-11.5%. DLF, Satyam, HUL, HDFC, Siemens and Idea Cellular fell 3-9%.

Volumes increased due to F&O expiry. Total turnover traded was at Rs 69,004.74 crore. This includes Rs 11,688.50 crore from NSE Cash segment, Rs 54,223.24 crore from NSE F&O and the balance Rs 3,093 crore from BSE Cash segment.