Sensex ends down 111pts, Infosys drops 6%

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 152 points at 19,553, and rallied to a high of 19,679 in early deals. The index, however, could not hold gains and slipped into negative zone soon.

The index, thereafter, exhibited volatile movement and slipped to a low of 19,249 - down 430 points from the day's high.

The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 111 points at 19,290. The index has declined 3.4% (686 points) in the last three trading sessions.

The BSE IT index plunged 4.3% to 4343. The Bankex declined 1.5% to 10,620, and the Realty index slipped 1% to 10,291.

The market breadth was negative - out of 2,779 stocks traded, 1,674 declined, 1,028 advanced and 77 were unchanged today.

INDEX MOVERS...

Reliance surged 4% to Rs 2,763. BHEL soared 3.5% to Rs 2,820.

SBI, Mahindra & Mahindra and Maruti rallied 2.5% each to Rs 2,267, Rs 760 and Rs 997, respectively.

...AND THE SHAKERS

Infosys slumped nearly 6% to Rs 1,744. Satyam plunged 4% to Rs 435, and Wipro shed 2% at Rs 477.

HDFC Bank tumbled over 5% to Rs 1,618. ICICI Bank dropped 3% to Rs 1,204.

Reliance Communications slipped 2.5% to Rs 727, and Bharti Airtel declined 2% to Rs 900.

ITC, Hindustan Unilever, Dr.Reddy's, Reliance Energy and Hindalco declined around 1.5% each to Rs 171, Rs 192, Rs 603, Rs 1,819 and Rs 189, respectively.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Reliance Natural Resources topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 852.20 crore followed by Reliance Petroleum (Rs 790.60 crore), Reliance (Rs 222.30 crore), Larsen & Toubro (Rs 192 crore) and Reliance Energy (Rs 182 crore).

Reliance Natural Resources led the volume chart with trades of around 5.56 crore shares followed by Reliance Petroleum (3.60 crore), Ispat Industries (3.37 crore), IFCI (83 lakh) and Facor Alloys (81.85 lakh).