Volatile markets end flat

The Sensex opened 49 points higher at 14,694 amid subdued cues from the global markets. The index gyrated between zones for most part of the day today.

Post noon, after the Economic Survey was released the index at first surged to a high of 14,764 backed by the proposed reforms in the Survey. The index, however, took a sharp U-turn and tumbled into red along with other Asian markets on jitters ahead of the US jobless data. The index tumbled to a low of 14,470 - down 294 points from the day's high.

The Sensex, however, recovered smartly towards the close and finally ended on a flat note at 14,658, up 13 points.

The BSE Metal index surged over 3% to 11,244, and the PSU index gained 2% at 8,156.

The market breadth was fairly positive - out of 2,692 stocks traded, 1,459 advanced, and 1,141 declined today.

NSE NIFTY

The NSE Nifty moved in a range of 95 points, it touched a high of 4,384, and a low of 4,289. The index finally ended marginally (eight points) higher at 4,349.

Gail India (Rs 288) and ONGC (Rs 1,052) were the major gainers with gains of 7.6% and 6.9% respectively. Tata Steel rallied nearly 6% to Rs 396. Grasim, SAIL, Jindal Steel, Sterlite, Powergrid, Sun Pharma, HDFC and DLF wer the other prominent gainers.

On the other hand, BHEL declined over 3% to Rs 2,143. Suzlon and Reliance shed 2.8% each at Rs 104 and Rs 2,004, respectively. Axis Bank, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Tata Motors, Tata Communications, Ranbaxy, Maruti and Punjab National Bank were the other major losers.

SENSEX MOVERS...

ONGC soared 7% to Rs 1,126. Tata Steel surged nearly 6.5% to Rs 420.

Grasim and Sterlite rallied around 4% each to Rs 2,402 and Rs 634, respectively.

DLF moved up over 3% to Rs 336. Sun Pharma and HDFC advanced 2.5% each to Rs 1,146 and Rs 2,401, respectively.

NTPC and Tata Power were up over 2% each at Rs 200 and Rs 1,169, respectively.

...AND THE SHAKERS

BHEL shed 3% at Rs 2,150. Reliance and Bharti Airtel dropped 2.3% each to Rs 2,010 and Rs 804, respectively.

Reliance Communications slipped nearly 2% to Rs 293. Tata Motors and Maruti were down around 1.5% each.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

Educomp Solutions topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 422.70 crore followed by Tata Steel (Rs 260.45 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs 233.66 crore), Reliance (Rs 228 crore) and ONGC (Rs 216.45 crore).

Ispat Industries led the volume chart with trades of around 14.84 crore shares followed by Mahindra Satyam (14.72 million), Suzlon Energy (12.46 million), NIIT (12.39 million) and Unitech (11.77 million).