Sensex moves up marginally, investors cautious

In a volatile trade, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex on Monday ended with a moderate gain of 24 points, as cautious investors restricted trade to selective buying and pulled back after reaching the 20,000-mark.

The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex, before closing with a gain of 24.03 points to 19,888.88, had regained 20,000-level after almost one-month. It gained 0.7 per cent and dropped 0.5 per cent during the day.

The trend in the Asian region was weak, as foreign funds slowed down buying ahead of year-end, while retail investors shifted to profitable companies led by auto and information technology sectors.

The broad-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty shuttled between 5,985 and 5,900.25 points before ending marginally down by 1.70 points to 5,947.05.

The automobile sector index gained the most, rising 2.30 per cent to 10,118.62, as segment major Hero Honda shot up 17.99 per cent to Rs 1,981.20, after stating that Honda Motor's stake sale would lower its technology-royalty payments.

The IT sector index was the second-best performer, rising 1.73 per cent to Rs 6,690.72 as Infosys Technologies, the second-largest software services exporter, extended gains after Standard Chartered said it's the "top pick" among peers.

Buying gathered momentum on reports that the renewal of "mega-deals", exceeding $500 million in value, might help in add $5 billion to sales by the end of March 2013.

In the 30-BSE index components, losers outnumbered gainers as 13 ended higher and the rest 17 with losses.

While the market was supported by stocks in auto, IT, tech and metal sectors, the upsurge was capped on fall in stocks in realty, bank, healthcare, power, consumer durables and refinery sectors.

As the market developed somewhat a divergent trend, the smallcap sector index gained 0.40 per cent to 9,221.15 and midcap sector index fell 0.13 per cent to 7,558.37.