Sensex drops 50 pts at close

The Sensex added two points over its last close to open at 6,586, and scaled up to an early high of 6,603 on selective buying support. The markets, however, soon eased following the commencement of selling pressure in most of the counters.

The index slipped sharply in mid-morning trades, but tapered off to move in a narrow range of 20-30 points lower following lacklustre trading activity in most of the counters.

The closing hours of the trading session witnessed a flurry of selling activity in most of the counters, which saw the index slip deep into the red to touch an intra-day low of 6,530.

The Sensex finally signed-off the session with a loss of 50 points at 6,534. The Nifty declined 13 points to close at 2,043.

ITC dropped 1.40% (Rs 18) to Rs 1,265. While HLL dipped 1.62% (Rs 2) to Rs 142, Reliance was down a rupee at Rs 534.

Infosys declined a per cent (Rs 23) to Rs 2,142. While Wipro shed 1.69% (Rs 12) to Rs 679, Satyam lost 1.16% (Rs 5) to Rs 400.

While ICICI Bank scaled down 1.77% (Rs 7) to Rs 375, HDFC Bank was down a per cent (Rs 5) at Rs 560. SBI, however, ended with a steady gain of Rs 2 at Rs 661.

Cipla shed 2.35% (Rs 6) to Rs 266, and Dr. Reddy's was down a per cent (Rs 5) at Rs 724. Ranbaxy, however, ended a rupee higher at Rs 1,026.

ONGC added Rs 3 to Rs 810.

Hero Honda gained 1.18% (Rs 6) to Rs 542, and Maruti was up a per cent (Rs 3) at Rs 466. While Bajaj lost a per cent (Rs 8) to Rs 1,028, Tata Motors was down Rs 2 at Rs 477.

Bharti slipped into the red from higher levels to close 1.44% lower (Rs 3) at Rs 215. BHEL at Rs 842 (down Rs 11 or 1.25%), Reliance Energy at Rs 548 (down Rs 10 or 1.73%) and Tisco at Rs 408 (down Rs 5 or 1.30%) ended with steep losses.