Sensex drops 37pts, Reliance gains 1.5%

The Sensex opened with a negative gap of 30 points at 12,244. After slipping deeper into red, the index bounced back into positive zone to touch a high of 12,303.

The index, however, could not hold gains for long, and slipped back into the red. Sustained selling pressure in banking, FMCG and select technology stocks saw the index drop to a low of 12,170 - down 133 points from the day's high.

Selective buying at lower levels saw the index recover some lost ground, and finally finish with a loss of 37 points at 12,237.

The BSE Bankex, FMCG and IT indices slipped 1% each to 5679, 2062 and 4394, respectively.

The market breadth was fairly negative - out of 2,575 stocks traded, 1,605 declined, 900 advanced and 70 were unchanged today.

INDEX MOVERS & SHAKERS

Satyam slipped 2.5% to Rs 838. ITC, Tata Motors and ICICI Bank declined around 1.5% each to Rs 188, Rs 835 and Rs 655, respectively.

Tata Steel, Reliance Energy, Larsen & Toubro, ONGC, Dr.Reddy's and TCS were down over 1% each.

HDFC Bank, SBI, Maruti, Ranbaxy and Wipro were the other significant losers today.

Cement stocks witnessed smart buying today. Grasim surged 2% to Rs 2,519. Gujarat Ambuja and ACC were up over 1% each at Rs 117 and Rs 980, respectively.

Reliance gained 1.5% at Rs 1,155. Reliance Communications spurted 1% to Rs 347.

Bajaj Auto and Bharti Airtel were the other prominent gainers today.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 227 crore followed by Indiabulls (Rs 139 crore), Voltamp Transformers (Rs 108 crore), Sterling Biotech (Rs 88.40 crore) and Bombay Dyeing (Rs 72.30 crore).

Sterling Biotech led the volume chart with trades of around 97.25 lakh shares followed by Reliance Natural Resources (43.20 lakh), Himachal Futuristic (36 lakh), Indiabulls (34.34 lakh) and Voltas (27.80 lakh).