Sensex down 13pts; Mahindra Gesco zooms 20%

The Sensex opened on a flat note at 8,499, but soon plunged to a low of 8,262 - a drop of 238 points from yesterday's close of 8,500.

The index bounced back in late noon deals to touch a high of 8,521 - an intra-day swing of 259 points. The Sensex finally finished with a loss of 13 points at 8,487.

All the sectoral indices largely declined today. The BSE SmallCap Index plunged 3.7% (234 points) to 6,040. The BSE MidCap Index declined 2.7% (117 points) to 4,228. The BSE Metal Index was down 2.6% (183 points) to 6,908. The BSE FMCG Index, however, zoomed 3.7% (55 points) to 1,540.

Out of 2,648 scrips traded, 2,352 declined, 274 advanced and 22 were unchanged today.

HLL was down 2.4% (Rs 4) at Rs 171. ONGC added Rs 9 at Rs 1,039. While Reliance was up Rs 4 at Rs 783, SBI gained Rs 2 to Rs 919. ITC, which went ex-split today, closed at Rs 140.

Infosys declined 1.3% (Rs 32) to Rs 2,465. TCS dropped Rs 17 to Rs 1,453.

Grasim declined Rs 18 to Rs 1,361. ACC and Gujarat Ambuja also declined.

HDFC was down nearly 4% (Rs 39) at Rs 990.

Bajaj was up Rs 8 at Rs 1,664, and Hero Honda moved up Rs 5 to Rs 708.

NTPC zoomed over 4% (Rs 5) to Rs 108. BHEL was up Rs 7 at Rs 1,135.

Mahindra Gesco zoomed 20% (Rs 41) to Rs 244.

Shriram Transport moved between a low of Rs 114 and high of Rs 133 before closing with a gain of over 5% (Rs 6) at Rs 127.

PSL advanced 2% to Rs 214 after the company announced winning a deal of $55 million from Qatar.

Reliance was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 387 crore followed by FCS Software (Rs 197 crore), SBI (Rs 166 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs 111 crore) and Satyam (Rs 97 crore).