Sensex drops 76pts

The Sensex opened with a negative gap of eight points at 8,603, but touched a high of 8,664 in late noon deals. The sentiment turned bearish towards the closing bell, and the index plunged to a low of 8,518 points - an intra-day swing of 146 points. The Sensex finally closed with a loss of 76 points (0.88%) at 8,535.

ONGC dropped 2.6% (Rs 26) to Rs 994. While SBI declined 2% (Rs 17) to Rs 874, Reliance was down Rs 10 at Rs 819. ITC slipped Rs 2 to Rs 125.

TCS declined Rs 20 to Rs 1,498. Satyam was down Rs 5 at Rs 626, and Wipro dropped Rs 3 to Rs 417.

Ranbaxy declined 3.5% (Rs 14) to Rs 377. Tata Steel, Maruti, Dr. Reddy's, Cipla and Tata Power also declined today.

L&T added 1.4% (Rs 21) to Rs 1,571. While Bajaj moved up Rs 9 to Rs 2,050, Hero Honda was up Rs 6 at Rs 845. Infosys, ACC and Bharti also finished with gains.