Sensex down 4 pts, pharma scrips rise

The Sensex opened on a firm note at 7,374 - up 27 points over its previous close of 7,347. Extended buying support in select counters saw the index scale to a new intra-day high of 7,393 in early trades.

The market thereafter steadily came off its early highs as profit-taking trimmed the gains of the index. Lack of fresh buying support saw the market exhibit a positive, range-bound trend, before sharp fall in select old and new economy stocks towards the closing hours saw the index tumble to a low of 7,334.

The Sensex fianlly settled the session with a loss of four points at 7,343. The Nifty, however, held gains and ended five points up at 2,242.

While 16 Sensex stocks advanced, 14 declined today. Advancing shares clocked a volume of 70 lakh for Rs 340.18 crore, and declining shares accounted for a volume of 27 lakh for Rs 134.36 crore.

The market breadth, however, was postive. Of 2,590 scrips traded on the BSE, 1,485 advanced, 1,053 declined and 52 remained unchanged.

Infosys lost 1.11% (Rs 25) to Rs 2,233, while TCS was down a per cent (Rs 9) at Rs 1,308. Satyam, however, rose 1.34% (Rs 7) to Rs 504.

ITC declined 1.41% (Rs 24) to Rs 1,672. Reliance Industries notched up 2.11% gains (Rs 14) to Rs 679, while ONGC added Rs 4 to Rs 920.

HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank edged marginally lower to close at Rs 636 and Rs 440, respectively. SBI, however, ended in the green at Rs 724.

ACC, which rose 4% yesterday, settled with a loss of 1.12% (Rs 5) at Rs 438. While Gujarat Ambuja, too, ended marginally weak at Rs 61, Grasim bucked the downtrend and jumped 3% (Rs 34) to Rs 1,175.

Hero Honda, continuing with its yesterday's slump, shed 3.42% (Rs 22) to Rs 614. Bajaj and Tata Motors were down a per cent each at Rs 1,392 (down Rs 10) and Rs 470 (down Rs 6), respectively. Maruti, however, ended with steady gains at Rs 460.

HDFC tumbled 2.22% (Rs 20) to Rs 880, and Bharti dropped 2% (Rs 5) to Rs 250.

BHEL, however, moved up 2% (Rs 18) to Rs 939, and L&T clocked a per cent gain (Rs 10) to Rs 1,296.

Pharma scrips scaled up on strong buying support. Gufic Bioscience vaulted 19.92% (Rs 5) to Rs 29. While Morepen Labs shot up 6.64% to Rs 8, Aurobindo Pharma added 3.98% (Rs 14) to Rs 362. Sun Pharma, Novartis, Vimta Labs, Wyeth, Aarti Drugs, Merck and Abbott India were up in a range of 2-3%.

Biocon, however, which reported a 20% dip in its Q1, dropped 3.22% (Rs 15) to Rs 437.

Reliance Industries led the value chart with a turnover of Rs 115 crore, followed by Tisco (Rs 56 crore), SBI (Rs 50 crore) and Satyam (Rs 37 crore), respectively.