Sensex breaches 15K-level, ends flat

Small-cap and mid-cap stocks continued to shine.

Banking and IT stocks pulled down the market on Wednesday after the BSE Sensex breached the important 15,000-level for the first time since the Lehman Brothers’ collapse in September last year, amid high volatility and profit booking. Falling after a five-day bull run, the BSE bellwether Sensex ended four points down at 14,870.90, after moving in a wide range of 15,046.43 and 14,733.59. The broader 50-share Nifty of the National Stock Exchange was steady at 4,530.70, against its previous close of 4,525.25.

Brokers said the market remained bullish, with encouraging infrastructure data for April indicating a likely economic recovery amid hopes that the new government would focus on the infrastructure sector and push reforms.

Small-cap and mid-cap stocks continued to shine with increased participation from public investors and outperformed the Sensex. Their respective indices gained 2.11 per cent and 1.50 per cent, respectively.

Union Financial CEO G Nagpal said, “People are not in a hurry to book profit. Even if correction emerges in one sector, other sectors tend to move up. This shows the overall sentiment is positive.”

According to him, there might not be much movement in heavyweight stocks and large caps would move sideways. But mid- and small-caps would steal the show.

According to provisional data on NSE, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers to the tune of Rs 233.29 crore, while domestic institutions sold shares worth Rs 424.14 crore on June 2. FIIs were aggressive buyers in equity during May and bought shares worth more than $4 billion in response to post-election political stability in the country. Banks, IT and oil & gas shares reacted negatively, showing losses in their indices on the BSE. Aluminium major Hindalco was up 6.09 per cent, ITC 5.76 per cent, Jaiprakash Associates 4.53 per cent, Grasim 4.38 per cent, ACC 4.38 per cent, Reliance Communications 4.24 per cent, Tata Motors 3.68 per cent, Tata Steel 2.92 per cent and Hind Unilever 2.55 per cent.

However, India’s largest tractor manufacturer Mahindra & Mahindra dropped 3.85 per cent, Infosys Tech 2.16 per cent, SBI 1.90 per cent, ICICI Bank 1.74 per cent, HDFC 1.71 per cent, RIL 1.51 per cent and REL Infra 1.02 per cent. On BSE, 2,019 counters registered advances, while 790 others finished with losses.

Trading volume continued to be high at Rs 9,461.31 crore. Suzlon Energy was the most active scrip, having clocked the highest turnover of Rs 392.45 crore, followed by Satyam Computer (Rs 320.48 crore), Unitech (Rs 291.35 crore), Essar Oil (Rs 273.63 crore) and Tata Steel (Rs 264.72 crore).