Sensex drops 54 pts; HOEC zooms 20%

The Sensex opened seven points higher at 6,611. After moving up to a high of 6,622 in early trades, selling pressure dragged the index into negative zone. A steep slide in old and new economy stocks saw the index drop to a low of 6,533.

A steady recovery was seen in mid-noon deals, which flattered to deceive. Fresh selling pressure towards the closing bell saw the Sensex finally end the session with a loss of 54 points at 6,550.

Reliance shed 1.60% (Rs 9) to Rs 556, and HLL dipped 1.26% to Rs 129.

SBI crashed 3.20% (Rs 21) to Rs 645. While HDFC Bank tumbled 2.18% (Rs 12) to Rs 540, ICICI Bank, however, moved up 1.43% (Rs 6) to Rs 425.

Wipro shed 3% (Rs 21) to Rs 660. While Satyam slipped 1.40% (Rs 6) to Rs 417, Infosys ended with a loss of Rs 9 at Rs 2,220.

Tata Motors plunged 4.30% (Rs 18) to Rs 406, and Maruti slumped 4.23% (Rs 18) to Rs 402. While Bajaj rose 1.92% (Rs 20) to Rs 1,084, Hero Honda also ended in the green at Rs 541 - up Rs 2.

Gujarat Ambuja dropped 3.66% (Rs 16) to Rs 409. While Grasim lost 1.89% (Rs 23) to Rs 1,211, ACC closed down a tad at Rs 362.

Ranbaxy lost 1.32% (Rs 13) to Rs 993. While Cipla dipped a per cent (Rs 3) to Rs 260, Dr. Reddy's closed down a tad at Rs 744.

Reliance Energy lost 2% (Rs 11) to Rs 533. While Tata Power dropped 3.16% (Rs 11) to Rs 347, Tisco was down 2.85% (Rs 11) at Rs 382.

ONGC jumped 2.11% (Rs 19) to Rs 912. BHEL advanced 1.87% (Rs 15) to Rs 801.

HOEC, which announced its reserves position yesterday, was locked at its upper limit at Rs 141 - a gain of Rs 23.50.

Select pharma scrips logged gains today. Ipca Labs moved up 5% to Rs 366. Abbott was up 3% at Rs 680. Wyeth was up 2% to Rs 436.

The broad market witnessed selling pressure - out of 2,355 scrips traded today, 1,453 declined, 832 advanced and 70 were unchanged today.

GV Films topped the volume chart with trades in over 64 lakh shares followed by HOEC (53.79 lakh shares) and Sonata Software (53.69 lakh shares).

Tata Steel was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 114.83 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 92.81 crore) and SBI (Rs 82.46 crore).