Markets witness a quiet day

Mirroring subdued global cues, the Indian bourses opened on a flat note with the Sensex quoting at 17,073 levels. The US markets ended lackluster with Dow Jones closing at 10,564 levels, higher by 11 points, while Nasdaq ended at eight points up at 2340 levels.

 In other Asian markets, Hang Seng added just 0.7 points to close at 21,208 and Nikkei ended three points lower at 10,563 levels. The European markets opened lower today, extending fall for the third straight day, weighed by financial shares.

 Back home, buying in realty and oil and gas stocks drove the Sensex to a high of 17,183 in intraday deals – a gain of 155 points from the day's low. The markets exhibited firm trend until weakness in the IT and metal stocks erased most of its gains by close. The Sensex ended at 17,098, up 45 points. The broader-based Nifty shut at 5,116, up 15 points.

 Among Sensex scrips, ACC, Hero Honda, Reliance Industries, JP Associates, HDFC and TCS were some of the counters that registered strong gains.

 The overall market breadth was negative. Out of 2,910 shares that were traded on the BSE, 1,663 declined and 1,174 advanced.

 Among sectoral indices, oil and gas index gained 1% at to 9,739 levels. Reliance Industries was the top gainer in this pack, up nearly 2% per cent or Rs 18.

 Strength was also visible in FMCG, realty and auto indices, while IT, Healthcare and the metal indices exhibited weakness and were down 0.5% each.

 The follow-on public offer of state- run NMDC received bids for 9% of the shares on offer till 1300 hrs on the first day of the issue today with majority of the demand coming in at the lower end of the price band.

 DQ Entertainment's initial public offer (IPO) had been subscribed 34.27 times till afternoon on last day of issue today, according to information available with the NSE.

INDEX GAINERS...

Hero Honda soared 3% to Rs 1,929 and ACC advanced 2% to Rs 1,009, respectively.

Reliance Industries, Jaiprakash Associates, HDFC, TCS, HUL and ITC added over 1.5% each.

...AND THE LOSERS

Jaiprakash Associates and Tata Motors were the major draggers on the index, down 3.5% each at Rs 143 and Rs 770, respectively.

Hindalco Industries, Reliance Infrastructure and DLF slipped over 2% each to Rs 162, Rs 1,002 and Rs 312, respectively.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Reliance topped the value chart  with a turnover of Rs 116.31 crore, followed by Tata Motors (Rs 90.83 crore), TCS (Rs 83.93 crore), Unitech (Rs 79.50 crore) and ICICI Bank (Rs 76.20 crore).

Texmo Pipes topped the volume chart with trades of over 33 million shares, followed by Unitech (10.65 million), Shree Ashtavinayak Cinemvision (7.43 million) and Birla Power (6.74 million).