Sensex ends down 144pts, Reliance drops 2%

Follow-up buying in morning trades, backed by steady global markets, saw the Sensex open with a positive gap of 52 points at 14,130. The index touched a high of 14,189 in early trades, but soon slipped into negative zone due to weakness in Reliance and technology stocks.

A fresh round of selling in late noon trades saw the index slide to a low of 13,913 - down 276 points from the day's high. The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 144 points at 13,934.

In the process, the index ended the holiday-shortened week with a marginal gain of 26 points.

The market breadth was negative - out of 2,667 stocks traded, 1,453 declined, 1,130 advanced and 84 were unchanged today.

MOVERS & SHAKERS

HDFC shed 2.7% to Rs 1,634. Reliance and Larsen & Toubro dropped 2.5% each to Rs 1,583 and Rs 1,698, respectively.

Bharti Airtel and ICICI Bank slipped 2% each to Rs 818 and Rs 855, respectively. Satyam declined 1.7% to Rs 471.

BHEL shed 1.6% to Rs 2,496. TCS, Hero Honda, Gujarat Ambuja and Maruti were down around 1% each at Rs 1,274, Rs 697, Rs 120 and Rs 806, respectively.

Cipla surged 2.7% to Rs 217. Hindalco gained 1.5% to Rs 148.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

Indiabulls topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 377.30 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 242.30 crore), IFCI (Rs 185.60 crore), Tech Mahindra (Rs 159.65 crore) and Indiabulls Real Estate (Rs 141.70 crore).

IFCI led the volume chart with trades of around 3.94 crore shares followed by Nagarjuna Fertilisers (1.36 crore), Himachal Futuristic (1.35 crore), Reliance Natural (1.20 crore) and Tata Teleservices (1.10 crore).