Sensex drops 77-pts at close, HLL shines

The Sensex plunged below the 6,100-mark towards the fag-end of the trading session to touch an intra-day low of 6,087, before buying in select stocks saw it wind up with a steep loss of 77 points at 6,106.

The Nifty was down 16 points at 1,909.

ITC failed to continue from the Thursday's gains, and slumped 2.44% (Rs 34) to Rs 1,345. Reliance, after trading in the green for better part, eased on selling pressure and was down a per cent (Rs 5) at Rs 506.

While Infosys ended with a steep loss of 2.93% (Rs 57) at Rs 1,904, Wipro dropped 4% (Rs 27) to Rs 647.

SBI ended with a per cent loss (Rs 5) at Rs 571. While HDFC Bank tumbled 4.60% (Rs 23) to Rs 486, ICICI Bank dipped 2.51% (Rs 9) to Rs 337.

Hero Honda at Rs 514 (down Rs 23 or 4.31%) and Tata Motors at Rs 463 (down Rs 10 or 2%) remained weak since the opening trades. Bajaj was down a per cent (Rs 9) at Rs 1,023. Maruti, however, attracted buying support, and advanced 4% (Rs 16) to Rs 410.

Grasim lost 1.77% (Rs 23) to Rs 1,258, and Gujarat Ambuja shed nearly 3% (Rs 12) to Rs 411. ACC, however, clocked a per cent gain (Rs 3) to Rs 345.

HDFC declined 2.46% (Rs 19) to Rs 745. While L&T crashed 3.23% (Rs 31) to Rs 920 on lower-than-expected Q3 results, HPCL slipped 2.54% (Rs 9) to Rs 328. Bharti slipped from higher levels to close down 1.25% (Rs 2) at Rs 198.

HLL notched up 4% gains (Rs 6) to Rs 148 on strong buying support. While Satyam rose 3.81% (Rs 14) to Rs 374, Tisco moved up 2.46% (Rs 9) to Rs 360.

Pharma majors - Dr. Reddy's at Rs 727 (up Rs 6) and Cipla at Rs 275 (up Rs 4 or 1.51%) were the few counters which bucked the downtrend and ended with steady gains. Ranbaxy, however, ended weak with a per cent loss (Rs 5) at Rs 978.