Sensex drops 22 pts, BHEL gains 4%

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of nine points at 6,561, and added another 39 points to touch an intra-day high of 6,600 in early trades.

The markets soon eased on selling pressure, but bounced back into the green and moved in a narrow (positive) range till mid-noon trades.

Fresh correction, however, in late noon trades saw the index tumble into the red to touch an intra-day low of 6,510 - down 90 points from its intra-day high.

The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 22 points at 6,530. The Nifty, after a mixed outing in intra-day trades, lost eight points to close at 2,052.

While 12 Sensex stocks advanced, 18 declined today. Advancing shares registered a volume of 63 lakh for Rs 379.67 crore, and declining shares accounted for a volume of 8.20 crore amounting to Rs 1,954.65 crore.

The breadth of the market, however, ended positive with 1,334 gainers and 1,002 losers, while 67 stocks ended unchanged.

Reliance, which clocked a volume of over 20.36 lakh, edged lower towards the fag-end and slumped 1.61% (Rs 9) to Rs 534. ITC shed 1.83% (Rs 25) to Rs 1,325. HLL had a weak outing and dropped 2.52% (Rs 4) to Rs 165. The counter registered a volume of over 5.1 lakh.

ONGC was down Rs 2 at Rs 819.

Wipro lost 1.35% (Rs 9) to Rs 686, and Satyam was down a per cent (Rs 3) at Rs 405. Infosys erased most of its gains on profit-taking and was up Rs 3 at Rs 2,067.

SBI, with a traded volume of over 2.141 lakh, advanced 2.27% (Rs 14) to Rs 649. ICICI Bank added 1.13% (Rs 4) to Rs 366. HDFC Bank, however, declined 1.15% (Rs 6) to Rs 555.

Bajaj lost 1.23% (Rs 13) to Rs 1,036. Tata Motors at Rs 486 (down Rs 7 or 1.51%) and Hero Honda at Rs 530 (down Rs 2) also dipped on selling pressure. Maruti, however, closed up a rupee at Rs 450.

Ranbaxy tumbled 1.87% (Rs 20) to Rs 1,051. Dr. Reddy's ended a tad lower at Rs 708, while Cipla was up a notch at Rs 283.

Bharti ended 1.48% weaker (Rs 3) at Rs 219, with a traded volume of over 7.43 crore on the BSE. Warburg Pincus divested close to 3% stake or 6.2 crore shares today.

Power stocks moved up on news of cabinet clearing the national electricity policy. BHEL moved up 4% (Rs 30) to Rs 788. While Tata Power, on a volume of over 7.59 lakh, gained 3.39% (Rs 13) to Rs 392, Reliance Energy came off highs and ended with a marginal gain of Rs 2 at Rs 563.

While CESC jumped 5.52% (Rs 9) to Rs 180, Alstom Project gained 5.36% (Rs 7) to Rs 143.

Select telecom stocks witnessed firm buying support following the cabinet approval of FDI hike limit in telecom to 74%. Tata Teleservies, with a traded volume of over 3.22 crore, vaulted 13.28% (Rs 4) to Rs 34. MTNL was up a per cent at Rs 140, off its high of Rs 142.

Alstom plunged 15.57% (Rs 14) to Rs 77. IFCI slumped 5% to Rs 16. While Sintex dropped 4.11% to Rs 397, HCL Infosys lost 3.90% at Rs 828. Indian Rayon was down 3.20% at Rs 425.