Sensex drops 63 pts at close

The Sensex opened firm with a 12 points gain at 6,726 points, but failed to add more gains. The index plunged deep into the red to touch an intra-day low of 6,628 by mid-noon deals.

Selective buying at old economy counters saw the markets marginally come off its lows, but persistant selling towards the close saw the Sensex finally drop 63 points to close at 6,651. The Nifty declined 19 points to 2,084.

While only eight Sensex stocks advanced, 22 declined today. Advancing shares accounted for a volume of 28 lakh for Rs 175.94 crore, and declining shares registered a volume of 1.40 crore amounting to Rs 718.97 crore.

The market breadth was weak with 862 gainers and 1,523 losers.

Reliance, on a volume of over 21.58 lakh, dropped 1.66% (Rs 9) to Rs 547.

Infosys tumbled 2.48% (Rs 55) to Rs 2,182. While Wipro crashed 3.33% (Rs 23) to Rs 676, Satyam shed 4.10% (Rs 17) to Rs 394, with a traded volume of over 17.17 lakh.

SBI, with a volume of over 28.93 lakh, dropped 2.67% (Rs 19) to Rs 695. While HDFC Bank slipped 1.75% (Rs 10) to Rs 577, ICICI Bank declined 2.23% (Rs 8) to Rs 372.

HPCL, which clocked a volume of over 12.12 lakh, dropped nearly 3% (Rs 10) to Rs 341.

Gujarat Ambuja lost 2.11% (Rs 9) to Rs 440. While ACC dipped 1.29% (Rs 5) to Rs 362, Grasim ended 1.17% lower (Rs 16) at Rs 1,330.

Hindalco plunged 3.14% (Rs 44) to Rs 1,351, and Reliance Energy lost 1.55% (Rs 9) to Rs 556. Tata Power scaled down 3% (Rs 12) to Rs 395. Zee, too, ended weak at Rs 138 - down Rs 4 or 3%.

ONGC moved up 1.49% (Rs 13) to Rs 864. While ITC soared 3.34% (Rs 43) to Rs 1,338, L&T flared up 4.66% (Rs 51) to Rs 1,136. HLL (up Rs 2 to Rs 146) also ended on a higher note.

Bajaj gained 1.16% (Rs 12) to Rs 1,045, while Hero Honda pared gains on profit-taking to close 1.11% higher (Rs 6) at Rs 550. Maruti, however, lost 2.24% (Rs 11) to Rs 463, and Tata Motors slumped 2.20% (Rs 10) to Rs 465.

Oil stocks ended at lower levels. IOC lost 4.76% (Rs 23) to Rs 468, and Kochi Refineries declined 4.69% (Rs 8) to Rs 172. While BPCL lost 4.51% (Rs 19) to Rs 408, IBP slipped 4% (Rs 23) to Rs 557. MRPL, Petronet LNG and Bongaigaon Refinery also ended weak.

Select metal stocks, however, logged gains today. Mukand Steel advanced 6.89% (Rs 5) to Rs 76, while Kalyani Steel rose 5.45% to Rs 162. Gujarat NRE Coke gained 4% to Rs 148. Madras Aluminium, Sesa Goa, Sterlite Industries, Tata Metaliks and Lloyd Steel also ended with steady gains.

SBI led the value chart on the BSE with a turnover of Rs 203 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 118 crore), Tisco (Rs 77 crore), ONGC (Rs 70 crore) and Satyam (Rs 68 crore), respectively.