The Sensex, which opened with a positive gap of 25 points at 9896, hit a new life-time, intra-day peak of 9945 in morning deals. Profit-taking at higher levels saw the index slip into negative zone soon, and selling pressure thereafter saw the index plunge to a low of 9804 - down 141 points from the peak.After swinging in and out of positive zone, the Sensex finally closed with a marginal loss of 22 points at 9849.The broader market witnessed considerable weakness today. The BSE Smallcap Index dropped 1.8% to 6264, and the Midcap Index slipped 1.3% to 4718.The BSE PSU index shed 1.7% to 5525. The Bankex, Auto and Capital Goods indices closed with losses in excess of 1% each at 5248, 4457 and 6832, respectively.The market breadth was extremely negative with more than 70% of the traded stocks ending in negative zones. Out of 2,577 stocks traded, 1,815 declined, 710 advanced and 52 were unchanged. Dr.Reddy's surged 5.3% to Rs 1,131. Ranbaxy moved up 1.7% to Rs 399. Cipla, however, closed marginally lower at Rs 442.Gujarat Ambuja was in limelight following the news that Holcim has acquired 14.8% stake in the company. From an early high of Rs 98, the stock slipped into negative zone to touch a low of Rs 90 before settling with a loss of 1.6% at Rs 90.50. ACC spurted 2% to Rs 577, and Grasim added 0.8% to Rs 1,448. Wipro rallied 3.2% to Rs 522. While Infosys declined 1.2% to Rs 2,868, Satyam and TCS ended on a flat note at Rs 743 and Rs 1,661, respectively. Reliance gained nearly 2% at Rs 712. Reliance Energy slipped 1% to Rs 631.HDFC advanced 1.6% to Rs 1,317, and HDFC Bank added 1% to Rs 743.SBI slumped 3.3% to Rs 884. ICICI Bank, too, closed in red at Rs 615.Late selling at the ONGC counter saw the stock slide 2.5% to Rs 1,236. HLL dropped 1.4% to Rs 192.Larsen & Toubro shed 1.8% to Rs 2,101. BHEL was down nearly 1% at Rs 1,701.Auto stocks witnessed selling pressure today. Hero Honda tumbled 2.7% to Rs 851. Maruti declined nearly 2% to Rs 747. Bajaj Auto and Tata Motors were down nearly 1% each at Rs 2,180 and Rs 688, respectively.Piramyd Retail zoomed 14% to Rs 230. Bombay Rayon, Bajaj Auto Finance, Opto Circuits, Atul, Gillette, Dabur, Lupin, India Cement and Gail logged sharp gains.Monsanto and Excel Industries plunged 10% each to Rs 1,910 and Rs 74, respectively. Suashis Diamonds, Punjab Alakalies Chemicals, Kajaria Ceramics, Praj, FACT, FDC, Dena Bank and IDBI also ended with huge losses today.Reliance led the value chart with a turnover of Rs 195.10 crore followed by Tata Steel (Rs 136.49 crore), SBI (Rs 124.57 crore), Gujarat Ambuja (Rs 118.07 crore) and Reliance Capital (Rs 116.18 crore).Gujarat Ambuja topped the volume chart with trades of around 1.29 crore shares followed by SAIL (64.08 lakh), Piraymd Retail (49.15 lakh), Bombay Rayon (43.06 lakh) and Amar Remedies (42.56 lakh).
