Dull day, Sensex drops 72pts

The Sensex opened marginally lower (seven points) at 10,923. The index exhibited a range-bound movement for the major part of the day. After dropping to a low of 10,797, the Sensex finally ended with a loss of 72 points at 10,858.

The Oil & Gas index slipped 1.4% to 5330, and the Teck index declined 1% to 2631.

The market breadth was marginally positive - out of 2,476 stocks traded, 1,314 advanced, 1,084 declined and 78 were unchanged today.

INDEX MOVERS & SHAKERS

HLL surged 2.6% to Rs 244. Grasim and Cipla added 2% each to Rs 2,038 and Rs 226, respectively.

ICICI Bank and Hindalco moved up 1.5% each to Rs 496 and Rs 182, respectively.

Infosys went ex-bonus today. The stock opened at Rs 1,700, touched a high of Rs 1,718, dropped to a low of Rs 1,665, and finally closed at Rs 1,680.

HDFC and Bharti Airtel dropped 3% each to Rs 1,165 and Rs 371, respectively. Wipro shed 2.6% to Rs 503.

HDFC Bank, Reliance and Hero Honda slipped over 2% each to Rs 747, Rs 1,075 and Rs 710, respectively.

Bajaj Auto declined 1.5% to Rs 2,706. TCS, Reliance Energy and BHEL were down over 1% each at Rs 1,868, Rs 444 and Rs 1,964, respectively.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 199.75 crore followed by Tata Steel (Rs 111.15 crore), Reliance Communications (Rs 72.91 crore), Satyam (Rs 71.40 crore) and Sterlite (Rs 70.80 crore).

SAIL led the volume chart with trades of around 47.25 lakh shares followed by Reliance Natural Resources (29.25 lakh), Reliance Communications (27.11 lakh), HLL (23.25 lakh) and India Cements (22.22 lakh).