Sensex drops 258pts; RIL, Wipro drag

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 46 points at 10,814. Fresh buying in opening deals saw the index surge to a high of 10,888.

Continued selling pressure at higher levels saw the index slip into the negative zone in mid-noon deals. Heavy selling thereafter saw the index tumble to a low of 10,440 - down 448 points from the high.

The Sensex finally settled with a loss of 258 points at 10,510.

The market breadth was fairly negative - out of 2,488 stocks traded, 1,720 declined, 699 advanced and 69 were unchanged today.

INDEX MOVERS & SHAKERS

HDFC dropped over 5% to Rs 1,163. Reliance, Wipro and Tata Steel shed 4.5% each to Rs 1,032, Rs 469 and Rs 523, respectively.

SBI, Reliance Communications, Hindalco, Hero Honda and ITC plunged 3.5% each to Rs 721, Rs 248, Rs 169, Rs 749 and Rs 175, respectively.

Tata Motors, Reliance Energy, TCS, Grasim, Maruti, Gujarat Ambuja, ACC, Dr.Reddy's, Satyam, Cipla and Rabaxy declined 2-3% each.

ICICI Bank rallied nearly 3% to Rs 500. Bharti Airtel and NTPC gained 1% each at Rs 371 and Rs 116, respectively.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

ICICI Bank topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 342 crore followed by Reliance Industries (Rs 240 crore), Tata Steel (Rs 135.61 crore), GTL (Rs 90 crore) and India Cements (Rs 89.40 crore).

Reliance Natural Resources led the volume chart with trades of around 72 lakh shares followed by ICICI Bank (69 lakh), GTL (64.80 lakh), SAIL (54.40 lakh) and India Cements (53.35 lakh).