Sensex drops 51 pts; tech, banking stocks slide

Mounting selling pressure in select banking, tech stocks and heavyweights have further dragged the index lower in afternoon trades.

The Sensex, as a result, has dropped 51 points to 7,197, while the Nifty has lost 19 points to 2,185.

Although declines are catching up with advances, the market breadth still remains positive. Of 2,457 scrips traded on the BSE so far, 1,274 have advanced, 1,121 declined and 62 have remained unchanged.

ICICI Bank has tumbled 3.56% (Rs 17) to Rs 448, while SBI has shed 1.15% (Rs 8) to Rs 718. HDFC Bank, which reported a 31% growth in its Q1 net, is trading lower at Rs 642 - down Rs 2.

TCS has crashed 3% (Rs 39) to Rs 1,231. Infosys has slipped further by 1.27% (Rs 28) to Rs 2,175, and Satyam is down 1.57% (Rs 8) at Rs 477. Wipro has declined 1.28% (Rs 9) to Rs 700.

ONGC is trading its earlier losses at Rs 910 - down Rs 15 or 1.57%. While Reliance Industries is subdued with a loss of Rs 3 at Rs 627, ITC, in a bearish market, has scaled up 2% (Rs 35) to Rs 1,765.

Ranbaxy has gained 1.65% (Rs 17) to Rs 1,039. While Cipal, too, is trading in the green with modest gains at Rs 325, Dr. Reddy's is down a per cent (Rs 8) at Rs 743.

Hero Honda has declined 1.97% (Rs 12) to Rs 623. Other auto majors, however, are displaying a mixed trend.

VSNL, which registered strong gains in the last few trading sessions, has eased 7.15% (Rs 25) to Rs 320. MTNL has dropped 3.62% (Rs 5) to Rs 133.

IT stocks continue to shrink. Hexaware has tumbled 11.80% (Rs 14). While Igate has lost 2.58% (Rs 6) to Rs 223, KPIT Cummins has lost 2.47% (Rs 9) to Rs 367. Rolta, Zensar and HCL Tech are down in a range of 1-2%.