Sensex ends up 24.20 points, closes at 20,301

Mumbai, Dec 27: The Bombay Stock Exchange's benchmark Sensex today closed with a marginal gain of 24.20 points at 20,216.20 amid bouts of alternate buying and selling in blue-chip index pivotals.

The Sensex resumed with a positive gap of 108.53 points at 20,301.05 from its previous close of 20,192.52 following buying in key stocks in early trade. It landed in red to touch a day's low of 20,159.73 on profit booking by investors during the afternoon trade. However, Sensex hovered around 20,200 most of the day, before ending higher amid choppy trading sessions.

Similarly, the National Stock Exchange's Index, Nifty gained 40.10 points to touch day's high of 6, 110.85 points in late morning trade. Nifty slid to touch a day's low at 6069, before finally closing with a gain of 10.75 points at 6081.50 from previous close of 6070.75.

The market swayed between gains and losses ahead of year-ending.

16 out of 30 stocks from the Sensex pack ended in red. Moreover, the market breadth was strong.

Reliance Industries declined, while ICICI Bank moved up. Consumer durables, metal and PSU stocks supported the market to remain at gains even as Auto and IT stocks declined.

Asian markets were mixed and European markets were in green.

The BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.30 pc to 9,441.86 and Small-Cap index was up 2.32 to 12,628.74. On BSE, 2062 shares advanced as compared to 852 that declined. 38 shares were unchanged. BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 8,237 crore compared to privious turnover of Rs 7,668.96 crore.

Key indices like Reliance Industries fell 0.47 pc to Rs 2883, while ICICI Bank gained 2.10 pc to Rs 1245 and Infosys Technologies rose 0.75 pc to Rs 1800. HDFC Bank went up 2.77pc to Rs 1750, followed by Wipro by 2.48 pc to Rs 549, ITC rose 1.68 pc to Rs 203.35, Tata Steel rose 1.47 pc to Rs 905.90 and Reliance Energy moved up 1.42 pc to Rs 2142.

Satyam Computers declined by 2.02 pc to Rs 450, Tata Motors fell 2.01 pc to Rs 797, Bharti Airtel declined 1.28 pc to Rs 970, Reliance Communications fell 1.62 pc to Rs 731.10 and Grasim Industries slipped by 0.89 pc to Rs 3585.

Some of the key Asian indices turned negative after a firm opening today. Key indices in China, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan were up between 0.10 pc to 1.93 pc. However, key indices in Japan and Hong Kong were down between 0.57 pc to 1.02 pc. UNI