Sensex ends below 8,500; Jet gains 6%

The Sensex opened with a small negative gap of three points at 8,526, but touched a high of 8,586 in morning deals. Profit-taking at higher levels saw the index drop to a low of 8,411 - a drop of 175 points from the intra-day high. The Sensex finally closed with a loss of 37 points at 8,492.

The Sensex has thus lost 142 points (1.6%) from the last weekend close of 8,634.

All the sectoral indices declined today. The BSE Bankex slipped 0.9% (42 points) to 4,836. The BSE Auto Index was down 0.77% (28 points) at 3,675. The BSE Metal Index was down 0.75% (50 points) at 6,599.

The BSE Teck, PSU, Capital Goods and Consumer Durables indices also declined.

The BSE FMCG Index was up five points at 1,483. The BSE Healthcare Index was marginally higher at 3,146.

Declines were ahead of advances - out of 2,549 scrips traded, 1,669 declined, 839 advanced and 41 were unchanged today.

SBI declined Rs 9 to Rs 916, and Reliance was down Rs 2 at 789. HLL was firm right through the session, and closed with a gain of Rs 5 (2.8%) at Rs 180. ONGC was up Rs 8 at Rs 1,047.

Infosys dropped 1.8% (Rs 47) to Rs 2,569. While Satyam was down Rs 3 at 583, Wipro dipped Rs 2 to Rs 388. TCS, however, was up Rs 19 at Rs 1,445.

Grasim slipped Rs 19 to Rs 1,315. ACC and Gujarat Ambuja also declined today.

ICICI Bank dropped Rs 5 to Rs 531. HDFC and HDFC Bank also declined.

Tata Steel was down 2% (Rs 9) at Rs 395. L&T was down Rs 15 at Rs 1,499. BHEL declined Rs 10 to Rs 1,215.

Dr. Reddy's moved up 2.5% (Rs 23) at Rs 945. Ranbaxy was up Rs 7 at Rs 526.

Tata Power advanced 2.7% (Rs 12) to Rs 473. Bajaj gained Rs 10 to Rs 1,734, and Bharti added Rs 5 to Rs 343.

Jet zoomed 6% (Rs 72) to Rs 1,237. Welspun Gujarat gained 7% to Rs 106.

Escorts declined 5% to Rs 91. VSNL slipped 4% to Rs 338.

Reliance was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 260 crore followed by SBI (Rs 173 crore), Satyam (Rs 148 crore), Tata Steel (Rs 139 crore) and Balkrishna Industries (Rs 114 crore).