Sensex flat in seesaw trade; ADAG stocks crash

Indian equity benchmarks contiued to hover around their previous closing values after staging a smart recovery from the day's lows.

Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group's stocks like Reliance Communications, Reliance Capital and Reliance Infrastructure extended losses quite sharply - plunged 7-9%. The 30-share BSE Sensex dropped just 4.5 points to 16,693.53. Meanwhile, the 50-share NSE Nifty lost 5 points to 5,010.20.

PSU oil & gas stocks like ONGC and GAIL were down 2-2.5%.

Other major largecaps like SBI, ITC, HUL, ICICI Bank and TCS continued to reel under pressure - fell 0.7-1.3%. BHEL, Wipro, Infosys and HDFC declined marginally.

However, Bharti Airtel shot up 2.5%. Reliance Industries and L&T maintained their upmove with 1-1.5% gain. HDFC Bank was upi 0.6%.

Ranbaxy Labs and Sesa Goa were biggest gainers on Nifty - both rallied 2.7% each.

About 705 shares advanced as against 640 shares declined on NSE. The broader indices were marginally in the green.

Among midcaps like SREI Infra, KGN Industries, Delta Corp, GTL and Bata India surged 3.5-5%. However, Ruchi Soya, Shree Global, SKS Microfinance, Whirlpool and Thermax slipped 3-7%.

At 10:46 hours IST : Nifty back above 5000; RIL, Bharti, L&T gain

The market recovered most of its early morning loses led by buying in heavyweights Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel and L&T, which gained 1-1.7%.

The 50-share NSE Nifty got back above the 5,000 mark, trading flat at 5,014.70. Meanwhile, the 30-share BSE Sensex gained 10.64 points at 16,708.71.

Wipro, Bajaj Auto, Ranbaxy Labs, Ambuja Cements, ACC and Jaiprakash Associates were other gainers - all these stocks gained 1-2%.

However, the consistent sell-off in major largecaps like ONGC, SBI, NTPC, ITC, HUL and BHEL has limited the upside - these stocks were down 1-2%. ICICI Bank and TCS fell over 0.5%.

Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group's stocks completely butchered as CBI said Anil Ambani continued to be under investigation. Reliance Power, Reliance Communications, Reliance Infrastructure and Reliance Capital plunged 4-7%.

Even the market breadth improved; about 755 shares gained as against 542 shares declined on NSE.

At 10:19 hours IST : Sensex loses 100 pts; Bharti, L&T buck the trend

Indian equities were trading lower, though they showed some recovery from the day's low. The recovery was led by heavyweight Reliance Industries - it was flat. Bharti Airtel and L&T too supported with 1% upmove.

The 30-share BSE Sensex dropped 134 points to 16,563.69 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 42 points to 4,973.55.

The market range has been moving down over the last nine months, said Sangeeta Purushottam, managing director of Nine Rivers Capital. She expects the Nifty to grind lower in the next few months as well.