Sensex drops 62 pts, heavyweights tumble

The market witnessed volatile movements during the trading session today. After opening firm with a gap of 17 points at 6,545, the Sensex gained further ground in early trades to touch the day's high of 6,569.

The market soon eased on steady selling in select counters and moved in a narrow range till early noon trades. The sentiment turned further bearish in mid-noon trades and the index plunged deep into the red towards the fag-end on all-round selling pressure to touch the day's low of 6,450 - down 78 points over its last close.

The Sensex, after witnessing an intra-day movement of 119 points, finally ended the session with a loss of 62 points at 6,466. The Nifty, too, came under steep correction and dipped 22 points to 1,991.

The breadth of the market was negative. Of 2,462 scrips traded on the BSE, 1,656 declined, 764 advanced and 42 stocks remained unchanged.

While only six Sensex stocks advanced, 24 declined today. Advancing shares registered a volume of 18 lakh amounting to Rs 81.45 crore, and declining shares accounted for a volume of 1 crore for Rs 494.33 crore.

Reliance, with a volume of over 12.16 lakh, plunged 2.63% (Rs 14) to Rs 526. While ONGC declined 2% (Rs 18) to Rs 872, ITC was down a per cent (Rs 9) at Rs 1,479. HLL was down a rupee at Rs 132, with volumes of over 3.60 lakh.

Infosys and Wipro slipped a per cent each to Rs 2,064 (down Rs 13) and Rs 653 (down Rs 60, respectively, after registering early gains. Satyam, however, ended a tad higher at Rs 430.

Reliance Energy tumbled 2.34% (Rs 12) to Rs 487, and HPCL slipped a per cent (Rs 3) to Rs 327. While Tata Power dropped 2.56% (Rs 9) to Rs 359, Tisco, on a volume of over 9.24 lakh, lost 2.51% (Rs 9) to Rs 354. Zee was down 1.76% (Rs 3) at Rs 151.

SBI (down Rs 6 to Rs 627) and HDFC Bank (down Rs 2 to Rs 537) ended in the red. ICICI Bank, however, was up a notch at Rs 396.

ACC dropped 2.17% (Rs 8) to Rs 382. While Grasim ended marginally lower at Rs 1,135, Gujarat Ambuja bucked the trend to gain a per cent (Rs 4) to Rs 446.

Maruti shed 1.75% (Rs 8) to Rs 446. Bajaj lost 1.17% (Rs 14) to Rs 1,178, and Hero Honda was down Rs 2 at Rs 550. Tata Motors was down a rupee at Rs 447.

Ranbaxy dipped 1.35% (Rs 13) to Rs 960, while Cipla was down a rupee at Rs 279. Dr. Reddy's, however, gained 1.32% (Rs 9) to Rs 684.

FMCG stocks came under strong selling pressure. Jindal Photo dropped 7.10% (Rs 24) to Rs 315, and Eveready lost 5.79% (Rs 6) to Rs 93. While Godfrey Philip dipped 3.47% (Rs 28) to Rs 775, Henkel Spic slipped 3.17% to Rs 24. Rayban Sun Opticals, William Tea, Ruchi Soya, Shaw Wallace, Bata Industries and Mirza Tanner ended 2-3% lower.

Select counters, however, exhibited steep gain in a volatile market. Godrej Industries vaulted 19.21% (Rs 30) to Rs 188, while Birla Corporation soared 10% (Rs 17) to Rs 183. Alstom advanced 9.98% (Rs 18) to Rs 202, and Kirloskar Ferous gained 5.31% to Rs 38.

Among the sectoral indices BSE CD index dropped 2.38% (down 43 pts to 1,749), followed by BSE Oil & Gas index (down 2% to 3,016), BSE Metal index (down 1.80% to 5,598) and BSE PSU index (down 1.41% to 4,179), respectively.

Reliance led the value chart with a turnover of Rs 100 crore, followed by Tata Motors (Rs 65 crore), Satyam (Rs 63 crore) and Tisco (Rs 62 crore), respectively.