The markets witnessed a strong upward bias in the first-half. After opening with a positive gap of 24 points at 6,181, the Sensex rallied past the 6,250-mark to touch an intra-day high of 6,270 as across-the-board buying support lifted sentiment. The gains, however, started tapering off by mid-noon trades. The Sensex slipped into the red towards the closing bell as wide-spread selling in heavyweights and other old economy stocks dragged it to a low of 6,121.The Sensex, after moving in an intra-day range of 149 points, finally ended the session with a loss of 22 points at 6,135. Reliance was down a per cent (Rs 4) at Rs 514. While HLL lost nearly 2% (Rs 3) to Rs 127, ITC declined a per cent (Rs 10) to Rs 1,369. ONGC, however, clocked a per cent gain (Rs 9) at Rs 840.Satyam slumped 4.63% (Rs 18) to Rs 368. While Wipro dropped 3.19% (Rs 19) to Rs 576, Infosys ended on a flat note at Rs 1,914.SBI and ICICI Bank slipped a per cent each to Rs 616 (down Rs 4) and Rs 384 (down Rs 3), respectively. HDFC Bank, however, moved up 1.89% (Rs 10) to Rs 531.While L&T dropped nearly 2% (Rs 19) to Rs 944, Tisco lost 2% (Rs 7) to Rs 347.Hero Honda declined 2.15% (Rs 11) to Rs 491. While Bajaj lost 1.11% (Rs 12) to Rs 1,060, Tata Motors and Maruti were down a per cent each at Rs 417 (down Rs 4) and Rs 413 (down Rs 3), respectively.Ranbaxy, Dr. Reddy's and Cipla ended with modest gains at Rs 942, Rs 689 and Rs 234, respectively.HDFC surged 3.28% (Rs 23) to Rs 712. While Bharti gained 1.40% (Rs 3) to Rs 207, Tata Power was up 1.37% (Rs 5) at Rs 337. Tech scrips were dumped today. CMC dropped 14% (Rs 86) to Rs 522 after reporting weak numbers yesterday. TCS, which reported a lower-than-expected Q4 net profit number today, slipped 8% (Rs 110) to Rs 1,210. Geometric, Tata Elxsi, Tata Infotech, iGate, HCL Tech, NIIT Tech and Mastek also declined.Bank stocks, too, finished on a weak note. IDBI lost 5% to Rs 84. OBC was down 4.6% at Rs 280. Canara Bank, BoI, Andhra Bank, Kotak Bank and BoB also lost ground.PSU scrips attracted buying today. BEML zoomed 9% (Rs 44) to Rs 549. Neyveli Lignite moved up 3% to Rs 68. HMT was up 2% at Rs 38.Adlabs, which announced a private placement, gained 3% (Rs 4) to Rs 132.All the sectoral indices closed with losses today. While the BSE Teck Index dropped 1.6% (24 points) to 1,574, the BSE Metal Index was down 1.3% (72 points) at 5,749 points.The market turned extremely bearish towards the close - out of 2,388 scrips traded, 1,393 declined, 920 advanced and 75 were unchanged today.Jaiprakash Hydropower continued to top the volume chart with trades in nearly 2.40 crore shares followed by SAIL (97 lakh shares) and Tele Data (49 lakh shares).TCS was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 186 crore followed by Tata Steel (Rs 120 crore) and Infosys (Rs 86 crore).
