The Sensex resumed with a small positive gap of five points at 6,757. The markets witnessed strong upward movement thereafter in the first half as the Sensex zoomed past the 6,800-mark to touch a high of 6,807 on strong buying support in most of the old economy counters.The mid-noon trades saw the index drift into negative territory with sideways movement thereafter on price fluctuation in most of the counters. Sharp selling pressure in late noon trades dragged the Sensex to an intra-day low of 6,732 before ending the session with a loss of five points at 6,747. The Nifty, too, slipped from higher levels to close three points lower at 2,126.While 10 Sensex stocks advanced, 19 declined and one stocks remained unchanged. Advancing stocks accounted for a volume of 52 lakh for Rs 241.06 crore and declining shares registered a volume of 77 lakh amounting to Rs 433.27 crore.The breadth of the market, however, was positive with 1,388 advances and 1,034 declines.ONGC closed on a subdued note at Rs 908 - down Rs 5. ITC and HLL ended a tad lower each at Rs 1,337 and Rs 135, respectively.Infosys was down a per cent (Rs 13) at Rs 2,192. Satyam (down Rs 6 to Rs 402) and Wipro (down Rs 2 to Rs 681) also ended at lower levels.Grasim lost 1.46% (Rs 20) to Rs 1,340. While ACC dipped a per cent (Rs 2) to Rs 361, Gujarat Ambuja was up a rupee at Rs 428.Ranbaxy dropped 1.54% (Rs 16) to Rs 1,052. While Cipla was down a tad at Rs 283, Dr. Reddy's gained Rs 4 to Rs 757.Bharti slipped sharply in early trades and ended 3.19% lower (Rs 7) at Rs 210. While L&T shed 1.54% (Rs 17) to Rs 1,068, BHEL declined 1.24% (Rs 10) to Rs 797. Reliance Energy lost 2% (Rs 11) to Rs 538.ICICI Bank, however, firmed up in mid-noon trades and surged 4.79% (Rs 18) to Rs 401. The counter clocked a volume of over 37.81 lakh on the BSE. While HDFC Bank closed up a notch at Rs 594, SBI ended in the red at Rs 728 - down Rs 3. Over 12 lakh SBI shares changed hands on the BSE.Reliance, with a traded volume of over 24.2 lakh, was up a per cent (Rs 3) at Rs 574. While HPCL added 1.92% (Rs 6) to Rs 339, Hindalco gained a per cent (Rs 7) to Rs 1,444.Tata Motors and Maruti ended marginally higher at Rs 457 and Rs 450, respectively. While Bajaj ended on a flat note at Rs 1,090, Hero Honda dipped 1.58% (Rs 9) to Rs 553. Usha Martin, which hit the upper circuit in intra-day trades, rose 19.81% (up Rs 18) to close at Rs 106.Metal stocks today firmed up on strong buying support. Kirloskar Ferous shot up 15.24% (Rs 5) to Rs 36. While Sun Iron & Steel flared up 9.73% (Rs 2) to Rs 22, Mukand jumped 6.61% (Rs 6) to Rs 98. Ispat Industries, Bhushan Steel, Essar Steel, Lloyd Steel, Tata Sponge and Uttam Galva nothced up gains in a range of 3-5%.Satnam Overseas, however, dropped 8.31% (Rs 9) to Rs 100, and Dhampur Sugar Mills tumbled 7% (Rs 11) to Rs 144. United Breweries and Bata were down nearly 2% each at Rs 410 and Rs 101, respectively.Reliance led the value chart with a turnover of Rs 137 crore, Sail (Rs 92 crore), Tisco & SBI (Rs 88 crore each), respectively.
