Sensex ends 123.78 points up at 15,750

Mumbai, Apr 2: The sensitive index of the Bombay Stock Exchange today ended the day up by 123.78 points at 15,750.40, shedding most of its early gains in late trade amidst bouts of volatility.

Starting the session above 16K level, Sensex climbed up at day's high of 16,236.70, surged over 610 points from its previous close of 15,626.62 on sustained buying interest in early trade. Afterwards, it gradually shed high gains and ended the session below 16K level amid alternate bouts of buying and selling in select pivotals.

Similarly, broader based Nifty index of National Stock Exchange erased its early gain of over 177 points and finally ended with a marginal gain of 14.65 points at 4,754.20 from its previous close of 4,739.55 in late trade.

Strong cues from global markets had boosted domestic bourses earlier in the day. However, the early high positive move on the bourses proved to be short-lived as the index heavyweights including Reliance Energy, Reliance Industries, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank and L&T, gave up initial gains, stock brokers said.

Nevertheless, the market breadth remained positive. Sixteen shares advanced from the 30-member Sensex pack.

BSE Midcap and smallcaps ended the session with marginal gains, while the sectoral indices were mixed. BSE posted a turnover of Rs 4769 crore against Rs 4,718 crore in the previous session. Total turnover in NSE's futures options segment amounted to Rs 34170.35 crore as compared to Rs 35886.84 crore in previous session.

Banking and IT pivotals advanced on fresh buying today. Bank of India, Canara Bank and ICICI bank posted gain of 6.60 pc (Rs 281.65), 5.62 pc (Rs 230.40) and 3.65 pc (Rs 784.20) respectively. Infosys Technologies surged 4.34 pc to Rs 1483 on 1.66 lakh shares.

Wipro ended up 1.10 pc to Rs 413.50, Satyam Computer Services was up 1.91 pc to Rs 405, and TCS gained 2.06 pc to Rs 852.

Reliance Industries eased sharply from day's high of Rs 2455. It settled 0.22 pc lower at Rs 2340 on 13.27 lakh shares. Jaiprakash Associates ended 2.51 pc to Rs 231, off day's high of Rs 240.95, HDFC ended 3.82 pc up to Rs 2450, off day's high of Rs 2524.70 and Bharti Airtel ended up 1.32 pc to Rs 815.25, off day's high of Rs 839.

Steel stocks declined on reports that the government has asked steel makers to cut prices by 10 pc to 20 pc, failing which it may take a host of fiscal measures to lower prices. Tata Steel declined 3.50 pc to Rs 644.

JSW Steel was down 4.93 pc to Rs 785, Steel Authority of India declined 4.13 pc to Rs 167.30 and Jindal Steel&Power plunged 2.36pc to Rs 1965.

UNI