Sensex ends marginally up 27.61 pts

Mumbai Feb 19: The Sensex today ended with a marginal gain of 27.61 points on the Bombay Stock Exchange to close at 18,075.66 amid highly volatile trading on positive cues from Asian markets.

Resuming the day with a positive gap of 167.21 points at 18,215.26 on fresh inflows in early trade, the Sensex surged by over 266 points to touch a day's high at 18,314.10 in afternoon trade. However, it dipped into the red to hit a day's low at 18,018.48, lost about 35 points from its prevous close of 18,048.05 on sustained selling pressure and later recovered to end in positive zone in late trade.

Similarly, after hitting a day's high at 5,368.45 by gaining 111.55 points, the broader based Nifty index of National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed the day almost flat at 5,280.80, with a gain of 3.90 points.

After holding positive ground for most part of the day, the market succumbed to selling pressure in late trade, shedding early gains, brokers said.

The market witnessed a bout of volatility in the second half of the day. Strong response to the IPO of Rural Electrification Corporation, which opened for bidding today, aided the rally on the bourses in early afternoon trade.

Asian markets were firm, while European market were mixed today.

The market breadth was strong as 16 shares of the 30-member Sensex pack ended in positive zone. BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.57pc to 7,685.33 and Small-Cap index rose 0.41pc to 9,795.54. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.

The total turnover amounted to Rs 5114 crore on BSE as compared to Rs 4,965.20 crore in the previous session.

Sectoral indices on BSE displayed a mixed trend as the Consumer Durables index ended up 2.85 pc and Auto, with 1.62 pc, were the top gainers. FMCG, Health Care, Bankex, Capital Goods and IT closed the day with marginal gains.

PSU, Metal, Oil&Gas, Power and Realty index closed in red and underperformed the Sensex.

Bajaj Auto surged 5.96 pc to Rs 2331 on 1.22 lakh shares. It was the top gainer from the Sensex pack. The stock was in the red till afternoon trade. It hit a day's low at Rs 2185.

Bajaj Auto today informed BSE that the Bombay High Court has approved demerger of Bajaj Auto ltd, splitting the group into three seperate entities with creation of two more companies.

ACC gained 4.82 pc to Rs 792.50 from day's low of Rs 752.25.

Larsen&Toubro rose 1.03 pc to Rs 3546.50 and Reliance Industries (RIL) slipped from day's high of Rs 2616.80.

Banking stocks, including HDFC Bank, State Bank of India and ICICI Bank closed with a marginal gain of 0.40 to 0.50 per cent.

Infosys Technologies was up 1.28 pc and TCS was 3.23 pc up, while Wipro was down by 0.49 pc and Satyam Computers by 0.96 pc.

UNI