Sensex drops 91 pts, Geometric gains 10%

After the Friday blood-bath on Dalal Street, the Sensex opened 27 points lower at 6,221. The index lost another 103 points quickly, and touched an intra-day low of 6,118 on relentless selling pressure.

After moving in a range of 85-95 points in the first half, the market curbed losses on stock-specific gains and recovery in most counters from their lows.

Fresh selling pressure in late trades saw the Sensex finaly end the session with a steep fall of 91 points (1.5%) at 6,157.

Reliance dropped 2% (Rs 11) to Rs 518. While ONGC fell 2% (Rs 15) to Rs 831, HLL dipped 2% (Rs 3) to Rs 129. ITC, however, advanced 1.7% (Rs 23) to Rs 1,400.

Infosys tumbled 2.3% (Rs 45) to Rs 1,912, and Wipro declined 1.6% (Rs 10) to Rs 595. Satyam, however, ended with a per cent gain (Rs 3) at Rs 386.

While ICICI Bank dropped 4% (Rs 16) to Rs 387, HDFC Bank slumped 2.7% (Rs 15) to Rs 522. SBI ended with a small loss of Rs 2 at Rs 620.

Dr. Reddy's declined 4% (Rs 30) to Rs 682, and Cipla was down a per cent (Rs 2) at Rs 232. Ranbaxy also ended weak at Rs 935 - down Rs 17.

Grasim slipped 1.7% (Rs 20) to Rs 1,165. While Gujarat Ambuja lost 1% (Rs 3) to Rs 418, ACC was up Rs 2 at Rs 364.

Hero Honda dropped 3% (Rs 17) to Rs 501, and Bajaj was down marginally (Rs 4) at Rs 1,074. While Tata Motors advanced 2.6% (Rs 11) to Rs 421, Maruti gained 2% (Rs 10) to Rs 416.

Hindalco lost 2% (Rs 27) to Rs 1,230. Reliance Energy (down Rs 15 or 2.9% to Rs 495), Tisco (down Rs 12 or 3.3% to Rs 354) and Tata Power (down Rs 6 or 2% to Rs 332) also ended with steep losses.

While L&T moved up 2% (Rs 19) to Rs 963, HPCL ended in the green at Rs 325 - up Rs 3.

Sectoral indices largely finished with losses today. The BSE Metal index dropped over 3% to 5,948 points, and the BSE Bankex declined over 2% to 3,771 points. The BSE Teck index was down over a per cent at 1,591 points. The BSE Auto and BSE CD indices, however, finished with marginal gains today.

Select scrips rallied sharply in a declining market. Geometric Software zoomed nearly 10% (Rs 46) to Rs 531. Welspun Gujarat, India Cement, Balaji Telefilms, Dabur India, GMDC, BPCL, BEML and Hexaware also closed with gains.

Metal scrips were hammered today. Essar Steel was frozen at its 10% lower limit at Rs 49.10 - a drop of Rs 5.40. SAIL tanked nearly 8% to Rs 54. Ispat declined 5% to Rs 25. Hindustan Zinc was down 4% at Rs 154. Nalco and Sterlite also declined.

Declining stocks were the flavour of the day - out of 2,365 scrips traded, 1,343 declined, 958 advanced and 64 were unchanged today.

JP Hydropower, which was listed today, topped the volume chart with trades in over 2.38 crore shares followed by SAIL (over 97 lakh shares) and Tele Data (49 lakh shares).

Infosys was the most active counter with a turnover of over Rs 140 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 86 crore) and Tata Steel (Rs 78 crore).