Sensex drops 164pts, Ranbaxy slips 6%

The Sensex opened with a negative gap of 21 points at 8,520, but touched a high of 8,548 in late morning deals. Sustained selling in afternoon trades saw the index drop to a low of 8,346 - an intra-day swing of 202 points. The Sensex finally closed with a loss of 164 points (1.92%) at 8,377.

Satyam declined 2.7% (Rs 16) to Rs 583. Infosys slipped 2.2% (Rs 60) to Rs 2,624. While TCS was down over 2% (Rs 30) to Rs 1,438, Wipro was also down over 2% (Rs 9) at 389.

ONGC dropped over 2% (Rs 24) to Rs 1,030. While Reliance was down 1.7% (Rs 13) to Rs 775, SBI lost Rs 14 (1.5%) to Rs 924. HLL was down 1.6% (Rs 3) at Rs 176.

Ranbaxy crashed over 6% (Rs 31) to Rs 458. Dr. Reddy's dropped over 4% (Rs 40) to Rs 897.

Hero Honda lost 4.7% (Rs 34) to Rs 695. While Maruti was down 2.5 % (Rs 14) at Rs 558, Tata Motors declined over 3% (Rs 19) to Rs 540.

Tata Steel was down over 4% (Rs 17) at Rs 376. Grasim slipped over 3% (Rs 41) to Rs 1,229. ACC, Bharti, Bajaj, Gujarat Ambuja, HDFC, ICICI Bank and Hindalco also declined.

BHEL was up Rs 2 at Rs 1,176. Cipla was up a rupee at Rs 369, and ITC was also up a rupee at Rs 128.