Banking, IT stocks help Sensex end in green

The Sensex opened up 38 points at 16,254 and touched a high of 16,338. However, the index could not hold gains and slipped into the red and touched a low of 16,130 - down 208 points from the day's high. The index rebounded in the late noon deals.

The Sensex finally ended with a gain of 47 points at 16,264.

The BSE Bankex and IT index added over 1% each. While the former gained 1.5% to 8,911, the latter advanced 1% to 4,369. However, the realty index dropped 1.5% to 4,247.

The market breadth was negative. Out of 2,868 stocks traded 1,717 declined while 1,070 advanced.

INDEX MOVERS...

Hindalco surged 6% to Rs 124. ICICI Bank and SBI gained over 2% each at Rs 836 and Rs 1,919, respectively.

Larsen & Toubro added 1.5% to Rs 1,628. IT stocks, Wipro, Infosys and TCS advanced over 1% each.

Bharti Airtel moved up 1% to Rs 422.

...AND SHAKERS

Sterlite tumbled 3% to Rs 746. DLF and Hindustan Unilever dropped 2.5% each to Rs 399 and Rs 256, respectively.

Auto stocks declined. Tata Motors slipped 2.5% to Rs 551. Maruti Suzuki and Hero Honda shed 1.5% each at Rs 1,467 and Rs 1,563, respectively.

ACC, Jaiprakash Associates, Reliance Communications, Grasim and Tata Power dipped 1-2% each.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS...

Reliance topped the combined value chart with a turnover of Rs 941.03 crore, followed by DLF (Rs 904.58 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 674.92 crore), HDIL (Rs 643.96 crore) and Unitech (Rs 618.37 crore).

The combined volume chart was led by IFCI with trades of over 70 million shares, followed by Unitech (57.03 million), Suzlon (52.35 million), Reliance Natural Resources (51.98 million) and NHPC (43.12 million).