Sensex drops 62pts; HLL crashes 5%

The Sensex opened with a small positive gap of four points at 6,674, and touched a high of 6,714 in early morning deals.

After moving in a narrow range for most part of the session, a sharp sell-off towards the closing bell saw the index drop to a low of 6,581 - an intra-day decline of 133 points.

Buying at lower levels saw the Sensex finally finish the day with a loss of 62 points (0.93%) at 6,608.

While 23 Sensex scrips declined with a volume of 89 lakh shares totalling Rs 434 crore, seven advanced with a volume of 60 lakh shares for Rs 315 crore.

Heavyweights finished with sharp declines today. HLL crashed over 5% (Rs 8) to Rs 144. ONGC slipped 2% (Rs 15) to Rs 805. ITC was down more than a per cent (Rs 14) at Rs 1,300. Reliance was down Rs 4 at Rs 535. SBI, however, was marginally (Rs 2) higher at Rs 664.

Maruti dropped nearly 4% (Rs 19) to Rs 471. Tata Motors slipped 3% (Rs 15) to Rs 492. Bajaj declined nearly 2% (Rs 21) to Rs 1,046.

ACC dropped more than a per cent (Rs 5) to Rs 369. Gujarat Ambuja and Grasim also declined more than a per cent each to Rs 443 and Rs 1,361, respectively.

Reliance Energy lost over 2% (Rs 12) to Rs 553. Satyam was down 2% (Rs 10) to Rs 406. Bharti, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Dr. Reddy's and Ranbaxy also closed on a weak note today.

BHEL was firm right through the session, and closed with a gain of close to a per cent (Rs 8) at Rs 859. Hindalco was up a per cent (Rs 15) at Rs 1,385. L&T was also up a per cent (Rs 10) at Rs 1,013. Tisco was up Rs 5 at Rs 406.

SKF India was the top loser among A group stocks with a drop of 7% (Rs 14) to Rs 191.

Siemens advanced 5% (Rs 71) to Rs 1,597. Crisil, which was locked at its 20% upper limit at Rs 680 yesterday, moved up more than a per cent (Rs 9) to Rs 689.

In the broad market, 1,559 scrips declined and 844 advanced today.

Ispat Industries topped the volume chart with trades in nearly 73 lakh shares followed by SAIL at 48 lakh shares and Tisco at 34 lakh shares.

Tisco topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 140 crore followed by SBI at Rs 122 crore and Reliance at Rs 77 crore.