Sensex drops 175pts

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 12 points at 8,389, and touched a high of 8,396 in early deals. And then the slide started - hectic selling towards the closing bell saw the index plunge to a low of 8,180 (a drop of 216 points from the intra-day high). The Sensex finally closed with a loss of 175 points (2.1%) at 8,202.

All the sectoral indices declined today. The BSE Capital Goods Index dropped 2.9% (136 points) to 4,617. The BSE Bankex was down 2.6% (124 points) at 4,684. The BSE PSU Index declined over 2% (102 points) to 4,888. The BSE Teck, Healthcare, Auto, FMCG, Metal and Oil & Gas indices also slipped sharply today.

Out of 2,508 scrips traded, 2,193 declined, 285 advanced and 30 were unchanged today.

ONGC dropped 3.6% (Rs 37) to Rs 992. Reliance lost Rs 11 to Rs 764, and SBI was down Rs 13 at Rs 911. While HLL declined Rs 3 to Rs 173, ITC was down Rs 3 at Rs 125.

Satyam was down 2.7% (Rs 16) at Rs 570. Infosys declined Rs 23 to Rs 2,601. TCS and Wipro also declined today.

Gujarat Ambuja plunged nearly 7% (Rs 5) to Rs 67. ACC dropped over 5% (Rs 24) to Rs 442. Grasim declined Rs 18 to Rs 1,211.

Maruti slipped over 4% (Rs 25) to Rs 533. Bajaj lost 3% (Rs 54) to Rs 1,691. Hero Honda was down Rs 13 at Rs 689.

L&T crashed nearly 4% (Rs 56) to Rs 1,417. BHEL lost 3.5% (Rs 41) to Rs 1,135. Bharti slipped over 4% (Rs 15) to Rs 328.

While ICICI Bank dropped 3.5% (Rs 18) to Rs 507, HDFC Bank declined 2.9% (Rs 20) to Rs 658.

Ranbaxy, Hindalco, Reliance Energy and Tata Power also declined today.

Dr. Reddy's was up Rs 8 at Rs 905, and Tata Steel was up Rs 3 at Rs 379. HDFC was up a rupee at Rs 984.

Mastek, which had slipped 10% yesterday, gained 4% (Rs 18) to Rs 490. Nirma added 2% to Rs 465. UTI Bank, Nalco, CMC and J&K Bank also finished with gains.

Atul gained nearly 7% to Rs 116. Apar was up 3% at Rs 225. Wartsila, Aarvee Denim and Dewan Housing gained over 2% each today.

Engineers India dropped over 6% (Rs 39) to Rs 595. ING Vysya Bank declined 5% to Rs 175. TNPL, Geometric, Hexaware and iGate Global also declined.

Reliance was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 251 crore followed by SBI (Rs 157 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs 134 crore), Infosys (Rs 121 crore) and Tata Steel (Rs 112 crore).