Mkt ends in red: Power, cap goods outperform

Mumbai: It was yet another volatile session for markets and it closed in green but managed to close off day's low. The markets seem to consolidate at the higher levels after a sharp rally in the past few weeks.

Sensex which was down over 300 points closed with losses of around 100 points and the Nifty ended with marginally down. The broader markets outperformed the fronline indices and closed with moderate gains.

Metal, capital goods, realty and power supported the makets at the lower levels. Heavy profit booking was seen in banking stocks on fears of a CRR hike. IT, pharma and FMCG stocks closed weak. The dollar further weakened and breached the 39.5 mark against the rupee and touched alow of 39.35.

Sensex was down 69.90 points or 0.39 per cent at 17777.14, and the Nifty down 2.15 points or 0.04 per cent at 5208.65.

About 1303 shares have advanced, 1679 shares declined, and 56 shares are unchanged. The BSE Midcap Index ended at 7,570.17 up 0.4 per cent.

The BSE Smallcap Index ended at 9,136.52 up 0.4 per cent. The BSE Bankex was down 2 per cent at 9,372.90. Oriental Bank, Canara Bank, Allahabad Bank, Union Bank, ICICI Bank moved downwards.

The BSE Capital Goods Index was up 1.2 per cent at 15,252.10. Greaves Cotton, Alstom Projects, Suzlon Energy, BEML, Areva T&D closed higher.

The BSE Auto Index closed at 5,403.04 up 0.2 per cent. Escorts, Cummins, Maruti Udyog, Bajaj Auto, MICO closed higher.

The BSE Metal Index closed at 14,365.26 up 1.4 per cent. Jindal Steel, JSW Steel, Shree Precoated, JindalStainless, Tata Steel closed higher.

The BSE FMCG Index closed at 2,143.49 down 0.7 per cent. United Brewerie, Nestle, Godrej Consumer, ITC closed lower

BSE Oil and Gas Index closed flat at 9,984.02. HPCL, BPCL, IOC, ONGC, GAIL ended in red. The BSE IT Index was down 0.2 per cent at 4,772.26. HCL Tech, Infosys, Mphasis, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, TCS closed lower.

The NSE cash turnover was at Rs 18573.47 crore and the NSE F&O turnover was at Rs 69313.27 crore. The BSE cash turnover was Rs 7863.09 crore. Total market wide turnover was at Rs 95749.83 crore.