A range-bound trend with a mixed bias prevailed through out the trading session today. The Sensex opened on a flat note at 6,906 over its yesterday's close and registered steady gains in early trades. However, healthy correction in mid-morning trades dragged the index below the 6,900-mark to an intra-day low of 6,869 - down 64 points from the day's high.Although the market displayed a mixed (range-bound) trend thereafter, the Sensex scaled up to a high of 6,933 in mid-noon trades following impressive gains in select heavyweights and tech stocks. The Sensex, however, failed to hold on to its gains as renewed selling in select heavweight, banking, pharma and other old economy stocks saw it end the three day rally with a loss of seven points at 6,900. The Nifty, too, ended weak at 2,124 - down five points.While 12 Sensex stocks advanced, 18 declined today. Advancing shares accounted for a volume of 80 lakh amounting to Rs 516.70 crore, and declining shares registered a volume of 45 lakh for Rs 201.80 crore.The breadth of the market was extremely negative with declines comfortably beating advances today. Of 2,075 scrips traded on the BSE - 1,609 declined, 438 advanced and 28 remained unchanged.SBI dropped 1.34% (Rs 9) to Rs 680, while ICICI Bank tumbled 3.78% (Rs 16) to Rs 416. HDFC Bank, however, gained a per cent (Rs 4) to Rs 595.ONGC and ITC lost a per cent each to Rs 927 (down Rs 9) and Rs 1,549 (down Rs 15), respectively. Reliance, however, on settlement reports between the Ambani brothers, shot up 2.76% (Rs 16) to Rs 591.Bharti, which rallied sharply in the recent sessions, faltered under selling pressure and dropped 2.13% (Rs 5) to Rs 235. Tata Power shed 2.10% (Rs 8) to Rs 381. While L&T declined 1.34% (Rs 15) to Rs 1,127, Hindalco slipped 1.15% (Rs 13) to Rs 1,121. HDFC, however, moved up 3.39% (Rs 28) to Rs 844. Ranbaxy slumped 1.84% (Rs 20) to Rs 1,050. Dr. Reddy's has lost 1.93% (Rs 14) to Rs 723, while Cipla slipped a per cent (Rs 2) to Rs 286.Infosys ended with a per cent gain (Rs 22) to Rs 2,280. TCS at Rs 1,277 (up Rs 5) and Satyam at Rs 484 (up Rs 2) ended with steady gains, while Wipro finished flat at Rs 734.Bajaj advanced 2.21% (Rs 27) to Rs 1,253. While Tata Motors added 1.29% (Rs 5) to Rs 427, Hero Honda and Maruti were up Rs 3 each at Rs 550 and Rs 440, respectively.Print and media stocks flared up, after the centre cleared 26% investment for FIIs, OCBs and NRIs. Deccan Chronicle shot up 14.35% (Rs 27) to Rs 212, and TV Today soared 12% (Rs 10) to Rs 89. While Mid-Day advanced nearly 11% (Rs 7) to Rs 70, NDTV soared 9.21% (Rs 18) to Rs 215. TV 18 gained 4.10% (Rs 11) to Rs 278, with Navneet Publications adding 5.75% to Rs 253.
