Late selling trips rally, Sensex drops 101pts

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 32 points at 12,103. After seeing off the initial volatility, the index made steady progress to the day's high of 12,153.

A late bout of selling, on account of profit-taking following five straigth days of gains, saw the index erase gains and slip into the negative zone. The selling pressure intensified towards the close, and the index plunged to a low of 11,915 - down 238 points from the day's high. The Sensex finally settled with a loss of 101 points at 11,970.

The BSE Auto index dropped 1.8% to 5109. The FMCG and the Metal indices shed 1.5% each to 2022 and 8034, respectively. The Oil & Gas index was down 1.3% at 5626.

The market breadth turned negative at close - out of 2,603 stocks traded, 1,584 declined, 946 advanced and the rest ended flat today.

INDEX MOVERS & SHAKERS

Tata Motors tumbled over 3% to Rs 831, and Maruti slipped 2.7% to Rs 916.

Reliance Energy, Gujarat Ambuja, Grasim and Cipla dropped around 2.5% each to Rs 457, Rs 113, Rs 2,439 and Rs 254, respectively.

Tata Steel shed 2% to Rs 489. Larsen & Toubro, ACC and ITC were down 1.7% each to Rs 2,647, Rs 940 and Rs 184, respectively.

BHEL, Ranbaxy, HDFC and SBI declined around 1.5% each to Rs 2,256, Rs 411, Rs 1,347 and Rs 978, respectively.

HLL, Reliance and NTPC were down over 1% each today.

Satyam advanced 1.8% to Rs 838. Reliance Communications and TCS were up around 1.5% each at Rs 331 and Rs 1,010, respectively.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Mahindra Gesco topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 214.35 crore followed by Tech Mahindra (Rs 200.75 crore), Reliance Communications (Rs 165.40 crore), Reliance (Rs 159 crore) and Bombay Dyeing (Rs 81 crore).

Reliance Natural Resources led the volume chart with trades of around 91.92 lakh shares followed by Nocil (57.05 lakh), Hindustan Motors (57 lakh), Tata Teleservices (50.50 lakh) and Reliance Communications (49.55 lakh).