The Sensex opened 77 points higher at 9,334, and soon touched a high of 9,380 on the back of follow up buying in the market. The index, however, could not hold gains has selling pressure at higher levels forced the index slip into the negative zone.
The index dropped to a low of 9,165 - down 215 points from the day's high - led by significant weakness in realy and capital goods stocks. The Sensex recovered partially towards the close and finally ended with a loss of 21 points at 9,236.
The BSE Realty index shed 2.8% at 1,599, and the Capital Goods index dropped 2% to 6,148.
The market breadth was negative - out of 2,506 stocks traded, 1,259 declined, 1,151 advanced and 96 were unchaned.
INDEX MOVERS...
Jaiprakash Associates soared 5% to Rs 70. Maruti surged 4.7% to Rs 545.
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Mahindra & Mahindra rallied over 4% to Rs 296. Tata Steel and Hindalco gained around 3.5% each at Rs 183 and Rs 46, respectively.
Tata Motors moved up over 2.5% to Rs 151. Infosys advanced nearly 2% to Rs 1,310.
HDFC was up 1.7% at Rs 1,530. Tata Power and HDFC Bank added 1% each to Rs 761 and Rs 921, respectively.
...AND THE SHAKERS
DLF slumped over 7% to Rs 165. Bharti Airtel plunged nearly 4% to Rs 628.
Wipro shed 3.3% at Rs 227. BHEL and Reliance Communications dropped 2.7% each to Rs 1,356 and Rs 162, respectively.
Larsen & Toubro and Ranbaxy slipped 1.6% each to Rs 660 and Rs 210, respectively.
SBI, Sun Pharma and Hindustan Unilever were down around 1% each at Rs 1,097, Rs 1,143 and Rs 257, respectively.
VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS
Satyam topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 503.69 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 206.97 crore), United Spirits (Rs 170.63 crore), Oriental Bank of Commerce (Rs 150.66 crore) and SBI (Rs 149.95 crore).
Satyam also led the volume chart with trades of around 9.71 crore followed by Unitech (3.21 crore), Suzlon Energy (1.99 crore), Oriental Bank of Commerce (1.16 crore) and Cals Refineries (1.16 crore).