Sensex down 148pts, Ranbaxy drops 9%

The Sensex opened with a gain of 27 points at 8,096, and touched a high of 8,126 in early deals. The gains were short-lived as the index soon drifted into negative zone. The index dropped to a low of 7,898 in late noon deals - an intra-day swing of 228 points. The Sensex finally closed with a loss of 1.8% (148 points) at 7,921.

All the sectoral indices, except BSE Auto, declined today. The BSE Healthcare Index dropped over 3% (92 points) to 2,711. The BSE Metal Index declined 2.8% (166 points) to 5,722. The BSE Bankex was down 1.9% (84 points) at 4,465. The BSE Teck, Oil & Gas, FMCG, Consumer Durables and Capital Goods indices also declined. The BSE Auto Index, however, was up 0.4% (16 points) at 3,545.

Advances were ahead of declines - out of 2,476 scrips traded, 1,337 moved up, 1,094 declined and 45 were unchanged today.

ONGC declined 3% (Rs 29) to Rs 926. ITC dropped 3% (Rs 4) to Rs 117. HLL was down Rs 4  at Rs 167.

SBI was down 2.6% (Rs 23) at Rs 864. Reliance slipped 1.8% (Rs 14) to Rs 757.

Infosys dropped 1.7% (Rs 43) to Rs 2,509. TCS was down Rs 23 at Rs 1,407, and Wipro declined Rs 13 to Rs 373. Satyam, however, was up Rs 4 at Rs 599.

Tata Power lost 5% (Rs 22) to Rs 410. Tata Steel declined 4% (Rs 15) to Rs 352. BHEL was down over 3% (Rs 35) at Rs 1,128. L&T was down Rs 28 at Rs 1,298.

Ranbaxy tanked nearly 9% (Rs 34) to Rs 355. Dr. Reddy's declined 3.8% (Rs 32) to Rs 807.

Bajaj advanced over 3% (Rs 59) to Rs 1,798. While Maruti was up Rs 15 at Rs 572, Tata Motors added Rs 5 to Rs 517. Hero Honda, however, declined Rs 18 to Rs 726.

Grasim was up Rs 6 at Rs 1,119. ACC and Gujarat Ambuja also finished with gains.

HMT advanced over 4% to Rs 87. Britannia moved up 4% (Rs 45) to Rs 1,204. Cadila, Ashok Leyland, CMC, SKF and BPCL also finished with gains.

GTC Industries zoomed 16% (Rs 14) to Rs 101.

Reliance was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 184 crore followed by Reliance Capital (Rs 176 crore), SBI (Rs 145 crore), Suzlon (Rs 90 crore) and Ranbaxy (Rs 90 crore).