The Sensex today opened with a positive gap of 53 points at 16,552 following gains in global markets. The index surged to a high of 16,678 as market heavy-weight, Reliance, said it has discovered oil in the Cambay basin.
However, markets dropped sharply in noon trades and slumped to a low of 16,372 - down 306 points from the day's high. Pofit taking in Reliance and Larsen & Toubro were responsible for the fall.
Reversing trends of a solid surge in the last four trading sessions, the Sensex finally ended down 58 points at 16,441.
The Nifty ended at 4,882 - down 17 points.
The BSE market breadth was negative. Out of 2,808 stocks traded 1,460 declined while 1,290 advanced.
INDEX SHAKERS...
Telecom stocks dipped. Bharti Airtel slipped 4.5% to Rs 294 while Reliance Communications shed 3% to Rs 169.
Hero Honda slumped 3.2% to Rs 1,500. Maruti Suzuki was down 2.7% at Rs 1,445.
DLF, ONGC, Hindustan Unilever and Hindalco dropped 2% each to Rs 378, Rs 1,137, Rs 265 and Rs 127, respectively.
The other losers in the Sensex today include Wipro, Reliance Infastructure, BHEL, Jaiprakash Associates and Tata Steel.
...AND MOVERS
Tata Motors and SBI gained over 2% each at Rs 594 and Rs 2,368, respectively.
Reliance managed to hold on to some of its early gains and ended at Rs 2,053 - up 1%.
VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS...
The BSE value chart was topped by Reliance with a turnover of Rs 282.19 crore, followed by SBI (Rs 238.81 crore), Educomp Solutions (Rs 217.97 crore), HDIL (Rs 158.57 crore) and DLF (Rs 148.88 crore).
GVK Power & Finance led by volume chart with trades of over 16.30 million shares, followed by Suzlon (13.69 million), Unitech (12.01 million), Reliance Natural Resources (11.59 million) and Austral Coke (11.14 million).
