Sensex down 8pts, Engineers India zooms 10%

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 24 points at 8,516, and touched a high of 8,565 in early morning deals. Profit-taking at higher levels saw the index drop to a low of 8,466 - an intra-day swing of 99 points. The Sensex finally closed with a loss of eight points at 8,484.

All the sectoral indices largely declined today. The BSE Metal Index dropped 1.6% (105 points) to 6,494. The BSE PSU index declined 1.2% (63 points) to 5,049. The BSE Oil & Gas Index was down 0.9% (35 points) to 3,956. The BSE Auto, Bankex, Healthcare and Consumer Durables indices also declined.

The BSE Teck index moved up 1.3% (28 points) to 2,193. The BSE FMCG Index was up 0.8% (12 points) at 1,494.

Declines continued to be ahead of advances - out of 2,505 scrips traded, 1,894 declined, 572 advanced and 39 were unchanged today.

ONGC dropped 1.7% (Rs 18) to Rs 1,029. While Reliance was down Rs 5 at Rs 783, SBI declined Rs 12 to Rs 904. ITC, however, was up Rs 2 at Rs 129.

Ranbaxy tanked nearly 5% (Rs 25) to Rs 500. Hindalco declined 3% (Rs 4) to Rs 143. Grasim slipped over 2% (Rs 29) to Rs 1,287. BHEL declined Rs 19 (1.6%) to Rs 1,196.

Maruti slipped Rs 11 to Rs 560. Tata Motors was down Rs 8 at Rs 539. Hero Honda, however, was up Rs 13 at Rs 745.

Tech scrips were firm right through the session, and closed with gains ahead of Q2 results of Infosys and TCS tomorrow. Infosys gained over 2% (Rs 53) to Rs 2,622. TCS was up Rs 4 at Rs 1,449. While Satyam added Rs 10 to Rs 593, Wipro was up Rs 6 at Rs 394.

Dr. Reddy's was up 2.5% (Rs 23) at Rs 968. Bharti moved up Rs 7 to Rs 350.

Engineers India zoomed 10% (Rs 60) to Rs 683.

Aztec Software advanced 9% to Rs 159. iGate gained 6% to Rs 277. Rolta added 4% to Rs 177. Mastek was up 2% at Rs 521.

Punjab National Bank dropped over 6% (Rs 29) to Rs 451. Syndicate Bank was down 3% at Rs 84. IndusInd Bank, Union Bank and Corporation Bank also declined.

SBI was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 141 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 130 crore), Satyam (Rs 128 crore), Infosys (Rs 105 crore) and Tata Steel (Rs 70 crore).