Sensex inches up to 2-month highs; L&T tanks 7% after results

Extending its winning run for fourth day, the BSE Sensex today inched up 9 points to close at two-month high of 20,159.12 helped by smart gains in HDFC, ICICI Bank and Infosys shares even as L&T tanked by over 7 per cent after reporting a decline in profit.

BHEL, Tata Steel, RIL and ONGC also saw losses but rate-sensitive auto and banking stocks helped Sensex end up.

In see-saw trade, the 30-share Sensex surrendered hefty gains in last two hours to end 9.27 points, or 0.05 per cent, up at 20,159.12. 19 Sensex stocks gained and 11 dropped.
The Sensex had gained 299 points in past 3 days.

The broad-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty edged up by 2.60 points, or 0.04 per cent to 6,031.80. Also, SX40 index, the flagship index of MCX-SX, closed 12.62 points up at 12,059.31.

"Markets witnessed a quite volatile session today, ahead of the FO expiry this week on Thursday," said Nidhi Saraswat, Senior Research Analyst, Bonanza Portfolio.

The trend further weakened on over 12 per cent drop in L&T April-June quarter profit at Rs 756.03 crore. However, a rebound in banking sector on value-buying and firm trend in global markets helped the market end in green, they added.

Energy major RIL ended seven-day rally by dropping 1.59 per cent to Rs 908.50 and engineering major Larsen and Toubro fell 7.46 per cent to Rs 901.95. BHEL plunged by 7.05 per cent to Rs 161.50 as concerns over new orders remained.

Sectorally, BSE Banking index rose by 0.98 per cent after losing 6.2 per cent last week. HDFC Ltd today shot up by 3.17 per cent, ICICI Bank by 1.64 per cent and SBI by 0.55 percent.

The auto sector index gained the most by 1.06 per cent.

On the other hand, capital goods index dropped by 5.57 per cent and oil and gas index by 1.65 per cent.