Sensex drops 192pts on all-round selling

The Sensex opened with a negative gap of 22 points at 6,629, which nearly turned out to be the HIGH for the day. Sustained selling across-the-board saw the index plunge to an intra-day low of 6,335 - a drop of 316 points from the previous close.

Renewed buying at lower levels saw the index finally close with a loss of 2.89% (192 points) at 6,459.

While 29 index scrips declined with a volume of 2.35 crore totalling Rs 1,158 crore, one (Gujarat Ambuja) advanced with a volume of five lakh for Rs 20 crore.

Heavyweights were dumped today. SBI plummetted nearly 5% (Rs 32) to Rs 617. Infosys lost nearly 2% (Rs 36) to Rs 2,052. ITC was down 2% (Rs 29) at Rs 1,285. ONGC declined 3.6% (Rs 30) to Rs 798. HLL was down Rs 2 at Rs 145, and Reliance was down a rupee at Rs 530.

Tech, auto, pharma, cement and power scrips finished on an extremely weak note.

While Wipro tanked 6% (Rs 43) to Rs 706, Satyam lost 5% (Rs 21) to Rs 390.

Hero Honda slipped 7% (Rs 45) to Rs 566. Bajaj was down 4% (Rs 43) at Rs 1,088. Maruti also lost nearly 4% (Rs 17) to Rs 446, and Tata Motors dropped 3% (Rs 16) to Rs 504. 

Dr. Reddy's declined 3% (Rs 23) to Rs 822. Ranbaxy was down 2% (Rs 26) at Rs 1,209.

Grasim dropped 3% (Rs 38) to Rs 1,303. ACC was down Rs 3 at Rs 348. Gujarat Ambuja, however, was a notch higher at Rs 426.

BHEL slipped 3% (Rs 22) to Rs 755. Reliance Energy declined 3% (Rs 15) to Rs 540. Tata Power was down 4% (Rs 16) at Rs 387. 

Bharti dropped 7% (Rs 16) to Rs 210. Hindalco lost more than 4% (Rs 57) to Rs 1,367. HPCL was down more than 5% (Rs 21) to Rs 392. Zee declined 4% (Rs 7) to Rs 170.