Sensex down 30pts; fertiliser scrips rally

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 34 points at 7,815, and touched a high of 7,846 in early noon deals. Profit-taking at higher levels dragged the index to a low of 7,711 - down 135 points from the intra-day high. The Sensex finally closed with a loss of 30 points at 7,751.

All the sectoral indices also largely declined today. The BSE SmallCap Index was up 0.6% (36 points) at 5,690. While the BSE Healthcare index was up 15 points at 3,053, the BSE Teck index was up marginally at 1,996.

The mood, which was extremely bullish, turned cautious towards the closing bell. Out of 2,633 scrips traded, 1,519 advanced (as against the early noon level of 2,000 scrips trading with gains), 1,061 declined and 53 were unchanged today.

SBI slipped 2% (Rs 15) to Rs 791. ONGC was down more than a per cent at Rs 988. Reliance declined Rs 6 to Rs 699, and HLL was down a rupee at Rs 166.

Tata Motors dropped 3% (Rs 14) to Rs 477. Wipro, which went ex-bonus today, declined 50% to Rs 363. BHEL, ACC, HDFC, ICICI Bank, TCS, Maruti and Hindalco also declined.

Hero Honda advanced 4% (Rs 26) to Rs 700.

Cipla was firm right through the session, and closed with a gain of over 2% at Rs 357. While Ranbaxy gained Rs 8 to Rs 542, Dr. Reddy's was up Rs 5 at Rs 825.

Infosys moved up over a per cent (Rs 27) to Rs 2,318. Satyam was up Rs 2 at Rs 513.

ITC, Tata Power, Gujarat Ambuja, Grasim  and HDFC Bank also moved up today.

RCF gained over 12% (Rs 5) to Rs 46. National Fertlisers, FACT, Indo-Gulf Fertlisers and Managalore Chemicals and Fertilisers also logged sharp gains today.

Reliance Capital was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 242 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 121 crore), IFSL (Rs 92 crore), HLL (Rs 90 crore) and SRF (Rs 74 crore).