Sensex down 66pts, Hero Honda drops 5%

After opening 34 points higher at 10,887, the Sensex exhibited some volatility in early trades but fresh buying in late morning deals saw the index rally to a high of 10,988.

The index, however, could not hold the gains as selling commenced in late noon deals. Lack of buyers saw an acceleration in the downtrend, which saw the index plunge to a low of 10,723 - down 265 points from the day's high.

Selective buying at lower levels saw the Sensex finally settle with a loss of 66 points at 10,787.

The BSE Auto and Metal indices dropped 1.5% each to 4,909 and 9,060, respectively. The Bankex was down over 1% to 4,969. The Consumer Durables and IT indices rallied 1.4% each to 3,139 and 3,781, respectively.

The market breadth turned negative towards the close - out of 2,534 stocks traded, 1,334 declined, 1,118 advanced and 82 were unchanged today.

INDEX MOVERS & SHAKERS

Cipla and Infosys gained over 2% each to Rs 241 and Rs 3,028, respectively. Tata Power added 2% to Rs 516.

Hero Honda tumbled nearly 5% to Rs 804. Tata Motors shed 4.5% to Rs 788, and Maruti slipped 3.2% to Rs 766.

Bharti Tele plunged over 3% to Rs 368. ACC and Gujarat Ambuja were down 2.7% each to Rs 779 and Rs 95, respectively.

SBI and Tata Steel declined 2.5% each to Rs 860 and Rs 548, respectively. Reliance Energy was down 2.3% to Rs 515.

Hindalco, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Bajaj Auto, ONGC and ITC were the other prominent losers today.

OTHER GAINERS & LOSERS

Rei Agro hit the 20% upper limit at Rs 128. Dewan Housing Finance, Chowgule Steamship, KRBL, Monnet Ispat, Infotech Enterprises, EIH, Finolex Industries, Mastek, Titan, Adani Exports and Sterlite Optical were the other major gainers today.

National Aluminium slumped 7% to Rs 237. Nahar Spinning, Dwarikesh Sugar, Indiabulls, Gujarat Alkalies, 3M India, Supreme Industries, VSNL, Jaiprakash, State Bank of Travancore, ABB, IndusInd Bank, Dabur, India Cement and Finolex Cables were the other significant losers.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

SAIL topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 207 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 130.40 crore), Wipro (Rs 114.91 crore), Tata Steel (Rs 96.84 crore) and Mahindra & Mahindra (Rs 88 crore).

SAIL also led the volume chart with trades of around 2.47 crore shares followed by G V Films (57.85 lakh), Dewan Housing (55.39 lakh), Prakash Industries (29.22 lakh) and J K Synthetics (26.56 lakh).