After exhibiting firm trend for the better part of the session on Wednesday, September 12, the Sensex closed with a loss of 37 points. The market resumed on a positive note and rose over 118 points to touch the day's high at 15,661 in mid-morning trades. Reliance Industries and Larsen & Toubro led the rally, but caution and lack of news capped the gains as the market neared record highs.
However, the Sensex fell into negative territory soon after the release of weaker-than-expected industrial production data. The industrial output in July rose to 7.1% from a year earlier, well below the forecast of 9.6%. The market remained subdued thereafter with alternate bouts of buying and selling in index pivotal stocks. Selling intensified towards the close and the market touched the day's low at 15,487. The Sensex finally closed the session at 15,505, down 37 points. The Nifty ended the session at 4,497 with a little change.
The market breadth was positive, with the gainers outpacing the losers. Of the 2,753 stocks that traded on the BSE, 1,538 stocks advanced, 1,163 stocks declined and 52 stocks ended unchanged. Most of the sectoral indices ended in the red. The BSE FMCG index dropped 0.77% at 2,082 followed by the BSE Bankex index (down 0.73% at 7,980) and the BSE PSU index (down 0.61% at 7,324). However, the BSE Realty index gained 1.47% at 7,642, the BSE Metal index (up 1.24% at 11,918) and the BSE CD index (up 0.81% at 4,595).
Among the Sensex stocks, Reliance Energy was the leading gainer and its stock price soared 3.24% at Rs888. Among other stocks, Bajaj Auto advanced 2.58% at Rs 2,393, Reliance Industries jumped 1.34% at Rs 2,013, while HDFC, Tata Steel, M&M, SBI and HLL closed with marginal gains. Among the laggards, NTPC slipped 2.76% at Rs 190, ITC shed 2.07% at Rs 180, ICICI Bank declined by 1.83% at Rs 885, Cipla fell by 1.46% at Rs 175 and Hindalco lost 1.21% at Rs 155.
Over 2.03 crore Tata Teleservices shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Nagarjuna Fertilisers (1.85 crore shares), Ispat Industries (1.48 crore shares), IFCI (1.46 crore shares) and Vishal Exports (1.25 crore shares). Reliance Capital registered a turnover of Rs 209 crore on the BSE followed by Everonn Systems (Rs 154 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs 151 crore), L&T (Rs 142 crore) and Reliance Energy (Rs 133 crore).