The Hindu Business Line : 4-day Sensex rally halts

A FOUR-DAY rally was snapped on Tuesday's trading as the Sensex ended in negative territory, losing 3.47 points (or 0.05 per cent) to close at 6,552.47 points.

The S&P CNX Nifty, however, ended with a gain of 2.25 points (or 0.11 per cent) to settle at 2,059.85.

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After appreciating by nearly 450 points in four trading sessions, the markets took a breather, ignoring strong FII flows and good earnings performance in the latest quarter.

Among the Sensex heavyweights, the prominent gainers during the day were HLL and Reliance Industries.

ITC, which was hit by the Presidential Ordinance negating excise relief announced on Monday, slipped further during the day.

Other Nifty gainers were Tata Chemicals, Dabur, GAIL and National Aluminium.

Among the sectoral indices, the ones that led the pack were oil and gas, consumer durables, FMCG and metals.

The sectors that underperformed the Sensex were healthcare, auto, banking and IT.

Even the market breadth was negative, with only 1,112 stocks advancing in value compared to 1,233 stocks that logged declines.

With the pivotals caught in choppy trade, mid-caps attracted heightened trading activity, with the CNX Midcap 200 appreciating by 1.02 per cent during the day.

Outside the heavyweights, the significant gainers were IFCI, a couple of technology stocks (Financial Technologies and Helios and Matheson), sugar stocks such as Dhampur Sugar and Ponni Sugars, Hotel Leela Venture and Glenmark Pharma.

Amid heavy trading volumes, the IFCI stock appreciated by Rs 2.58 to close at Rs 16.63. There was an eight-fold rise in trading volumes in the stock, touching 1.41 crore shares.

Continuing to ride on its strong October-December earnings performance, the Helios and Matheson stock advanced by Rs 7.15 to close at Rs 108.75. The trading volumes rose from 2.54 lakh shares on Monday to 3.21 lakh shares today.

Among the losers were Nahar Spinning, Binani Industries, Dabur Pharma and IDBI.

Nahar Spinning shed Rs 12.85 to close at Rs 218.45, which is attributable to disappointing quarterly earnings performance.

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