The BSE sensitive index opened up strongly at 15,357.60. It continued to trade strong supported by substantiated buying pressure in index heavyweights. But, the stock index lost its power, lastly sliding into the negative to end the day on a flat note. It touched an intra-day high of 15,440.20 and low of 15,272.46 during the day.

The stocks from cement, IT and pharma led the processions, while auto and banking sectors led the declines.

In end, the BSE Sensex finally settled at 15,289.82 after cutting 21.40 points, whereas the broad-based NSE Nifty closed at 4,496.75, down 15.4 points.

There were 977 advancements on the index as against 1,696 declinations. Among the sectoral indices BSE Realty arose 0.39%, BSE IT climbed 0.65%, BSE Auto rejected 1.24%, BSE Consumer Durables lifted up 0.55%, BSE Bankex missed 0.42% and BSE Metal rejected 1.84%.

The leaders at the BSE include Ambuja Cement, which gained 3.11% to Rs 137.45, Reliance Industries climbed 2.86% to Rs 1,827.35 and TCS arose 2.39% to Rs 1,154.85. The other gainers’ on the index include Dr Reddys, Satyam and Wipro.

Laggards at the BSE include M&M, which declined 2.63% to close at Rs 799.60, Reliance Comm declined 2.31% to Rs 560.80 and BHEL declined 2.16% to close at Rs 1,623.20. SBI, Tata Steel and Bharti Airtel were among the other losers.

IDBI showed the top volume with 4.80 million shares, which is being followed by Power Finance with 4.26 million shares, Idea Cellular with 3.83 million shares and Reliance Petroleum with 3.67 million shares.