Sensex drops 71pts; bank stocks decline

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 18 points at 9,260, and touched a high of 9,298 in morning deals. After moving in a narrow range in noon deals, selling pressure in late noon deals saw the index plunge to a low of 9,117 - an intra-day swing of 181 points. The Sensex finally closed with a loss of 71 points (0.77%) at 9,170.

The sectoral indices declined today. The BSE Consumer Durables Index plunged 3.8% (125 points) to 3,161. The BSE Bankex declined 2.5% (124 points) to 4,941. The BSE FMCG Index dropped 1.6% (26 points) to 1,601. The BSE Auto Index slipped 1.3% (57 points) to 4,180. The BSE Oil & Gas, Metal, Healthcare and Capital Goods indices also declined. The BSE Teck Index, however, moved up 0.7% (16 points) to 2,403.

Declines were ahead of advances nearly 2:1 - out of 2,530 scrips traded, 1,619 declined, 859 advanced and 52 were unchanged today.

SBI plunged 3.4% (Rs 31) to Rs 897. Reliance dropped 1.8% (Rs 15) to Rs 845.

Hero Honda declined over 2% (Rs 19) to Rs 838. Bajaj slipped 1.8% (Rs 37) to Rs 2,081. While Maruti was down Rs 12 at Rs 647, Tata Motors was down Rs 5 at Rs 612.

ACC dropped 2% (Rs 12) to Rs 536. While Grasim was down Rs 13 at Rs 1,366, Gujarat Ambuja slipped to Rs 80.

Ranbaxy slumped 3% (Rs 12) to Rs 387. Dr. Reddy's was down 2% (Rs 19) at Rs 930.

Tata Steel slipped 2.6% (Rs 10) to Rs 368. BHEL, Reliance Energy NTPC and Bharti Tele also declined.

Satyam was firm right through the session, and closed with a gain of over 5% (Rs 36) at Rs 719. Infosys was up 1% (Rs 33) at Rs 2,919. TCS was up Rs 5 at Rs 1,693.

L&T added Rs 9 to Rs 1,735. Hindalco, Cipla, HDFC and Tata Power also finished with gains.

Bank scrips declined sharply today. UTI Bank slipped over 7% (Rs 22) to Rs 286. BoI declined 6% to Rs 118. HDFC Bank dropped over 2% (Rs 15) to Rs 704. ICICI Bank, Federal Bank, IOB, PNB and Union Bank also declined.

Select tech scrips moved up today. Hexware advanced over 6% to Rs 118. IGate Global added Rs 4 to Rs 251, and Mastek was up Rs 5 at Rs 525. Aztec gained Rs 8 to Rs 172.

Satyam was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 214 crore followed by Titan (Rs 176 crore), Everest Kanto Cylinders (Rs 160 crore), Reliance (Rs 145 crore) and Infosys (Rs 129 crore).