Sensex drops 162pts, Bajaj gains 2%

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 35 points at 12,401, and touched a high of 12,420 in morning deals. The index, however, could not hold the gains, and slipped to negative zone in late morning deals.

The selling intensified in noon deals, and the index plunged to a low of 12,179 - an intra-day drop of 241 points.

The Sensex finally closed with a loss of 162 points at 12,204.

All the sectoral indices declined today. The BSE PSU Index slipped 1.5% (88 points) to 5744. The BSE Teck Index was down 1.5% (44 points) at 2938. The BSE Consumer Durables Index declined 1.6% (49 points) to 3077.

Declines were ahead of advances - out of 2,534 scrips traded, 1,446 slipped, 1,022 moved up and 66 were unchanged.

INDEX MOVERS & SHAKERS

Only two Sensex scrips - Bajaj Auto and Tata Motors - managed to close with gains today. While Bajaj gained nearly 2% (Rs 56) to Rs 3,087, Tata Motors was up Rs 11 at Rs 880.

HDFC Bank dropped over 3% (Rs 28) to Rs 892. HDFC lost 2.5% (Rs 37) to Rs 1,441.

BHEL was down nearly 3% (Rs 68) to Rs 2,302.

TCS slipped 2.6% (Rs 26) to Rs 988. Satyam declined over 2% (Rs 19) to Rs 803. Wipro was also down over 2% (Rs 11) at Rs 509.

Hero Honda, ONGC, Reliance Communications, Maruti, Tata Steel and Dr. Reddy's slipped over 2% each today.

VOLUME & VALUE TOPPERS

Faccor Alloys topped the volume chart with trades of over 2.56 crore shares followed by Gwalior Chemicals (1.70 crore), Silverline (1.16 crore) and Atlanta (59 lakh).

Reliance was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 199 crore followed by Gwalior Chemicals (Rs 155 crore), Atlanta (Rs 123 crore) and Mahindra Gesco (Rs 108 crore).