Profit taking knocks off 371pts of Sensex

The Sensex opened marginally higher at 10,428, and soon touched a high of 10,451. The index, however, could not hold gains for long and soon dipped in red.

Continous profit taking following four days of gains, saw the index tumble to a low of 9991 - down 460 points from the day's high. The index finally finished with a loss of 3.5% (371 points) at 10,042.

While the Small-cap index dropped 4.8% to 5346, the Mid-cap index shed 4.3% to 4277.

The BSE Metal index slumped 7% to 7884. The Auto index tumbled over 4% to 4470. The Healthcare and Teck indices dropped 3.5% each to 3094 and 2352, respectively.

The market breadth was extremely negative with over five declining stocks for every advancing share. Out of 2,460 stocks traded, 2,020 declined, 405 advanced and 35 were unchanged.

INDEX MOVERS & SHAKERS

HDFC Bank advanced 2.7% to Rs 761.

Tata Steel and Hindalco plunged nearly 7% each to Rs 496 and Rs 161, respectively.

Tata Motors and NTPC slumped nearly 6% each to Rs 730 and Rs 109, respectively.

HDFC, Ranbaxy and Maruti slipped over 5% each to Rs 1,046, Rs 371 and Rs 736, respectively.

ACC and Satyam were down 4.7% each to Rs 745 and Rs 673, respectively.

ONGC, Grasim, Larsen & Toubro and RCoVL dropped 4.5% each to Rs 1,063, Rs 1,784, Rs 2,081 and Rs 241, respectively.

Hero Honda, TCS and Bajaj Auto declined over 4% each to Rs 733, Rs 1,631 and Rs 2,595, respectively.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Reliance led the value chart with a turnover of Rs 327.41 crore following Tata Steel (Rs 224.63 crore), UTI Bank (Rs 106.23 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs 98.52 crore) and Mahindra Gesco (Rs 82.25 crore).

SAIL topped the volume chart with trades of around 72.42 lakh shares followed by G V Films (47.78 lakh), Tata Steel (43 lakh), UTI Bank (39 lakh) and SpiceJet (32.70 lakh).