Sensex drops 118pts, Maruti gains 3%

The Sensex, which had dropped 307 points yesterday, opened with a positive gap of 11 points at 11,367, and immediately moved up to a high of 11,381. Selling commenced soon after, and the index plunged to a low of 11,008 - a drop of 373 points from the intra-day high.

Buying at lower levels saw the index recover close to 225 points to finally close with a loss 118 points (1.04%) at 11,237.

All the sectoral indices declined sharply today. The BSE Capital Goods Index plunged 2.8% (239 points) to 8290. The BSE Bankex dropped over 2% (120 points) to 5107. The BSE Teck Index was down 1.7% (45 points) at 2635.

Declines outnumbered advances nearly 3:1 - out of 2,551 scrips traded, 1,836 declined, 672 advanced and 43 were unchanged today.

Cipla plunged over 5% (Rs 34) to Rs 652. Grasim dipped nearly 4% (Rs 84) to Rs 2,091.

While Satyam declined over 3% (Rs 26) to Rs 772, Infosys slipped 1.8% (Rs 54) to Rs 3,021.

BHEL was down over 3% (Rs 75) at Rs 2,283, and L&T dropped Rs 60 to Rs 2,498.

ICICI Bank was down Rs 19 at Rs 565, and SBI declined Rs 18 to Rs 918.

Reliance advanced over 2% (Rs 18) to Rs 847. Maruti zoomed over 3% (Rs 29) to Rs 870. Dr. Reddy's gained over 3% (Rs 46) to Rs 1,472.

i-Flex was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 318 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 249 crore), Satyam (Rs 236 crore), Hindustan Zinc (Rs 220 crore) and Infosys (Rs 207 crore).