Markets end in the green

The markets ended in the positive, aided by strength in FMCG, oil and PSU stocks. The Sensex ended at 17,198, higher by 67 points, and the Nifty closed at 5,108, up 17 points.

After opening marginally weak, the Sensex rebounded immediately to touch an intra-day high of 17,290.48. The markets retraced some of their gains in the afternoon session as a result of volatility ahead of the derivatives series expiry, but still managed to close well above the dotted line.

Asia ended in the green after the Federal Reserve raised the US growth forecasts for 2010.

Hero Honda was the leading Sensex gainer, ending higher by 2.2% at Rs 1,725. ITC gained 1.9% at Rs 268 and Hindustan Unilever added 1.7% at Rs 284.

HDFC Bank, Maruti and ACC added a little more than a percent each.

DLF was the major Sensex loser, shedding 2.9% at Rs 362. Reliance Communications lost 1.4% at Rs 170 and Jaiprakash Associates shed 1.1% at Rs 225.

Tata Motors, Reliance Infrastructure and M&M lost nearly 1% each.

The market breadth turned negative towards close. Out of 2,848 stocks traded on the BSE, there were 1,289 advancing stocks as against 1,484 declines.

Reliance topped the value charts on the BSE, registering a turnover of Rs 292.29 crore. This was followed by HDIL at Rs 128.75 crore, JSW Steel at Rs 112.44 crore, SBI at Rs 106.65 crore and Reliance Capital at Rs 98.29 crore.

Suzlon led the volume charts with trades of 8.86 million shares, followed by Unitech at 8.05 million shares, HDIL at 3.94 million shares, Indian Hotels at 3.60 million shares and GVK Power at 3.45 million shares.