Sensex ends down 194pts, Maruti drops 8%

After opening with a positive gap of 125 points at 20,103, the Sensex touched an all-time intra-day high of 20,238 before slipping into negative zone in early trades. The index, thereafter, exhibited significant volatility and rebounded into positive zone after the Reserve Bank of India, in its second quarterly review of credit policy, left key rates untouched but hiked the cash reserve ratio (CRR) by 50 basis points to 7.5%.

A fresh round of selling in late noon trades saw the index tumble to a low of 19,695 - down 543 points from the peak. The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 194 points at 19,784.

The BSE Auto index tumbled over 3% to 5480, and the Oil & Gas index slipped over 1% to 11,526. The BSE Bankex also slipped 1% to 10,550. The Realty index, however, surged 2.4% to 10,517.

The market breadth was fairly negative - out of 2,822 stocks traded 1,666 declined, 1,087 advanced and 69 were unchanged today.

INDEX SHAKERS...

Maruti slumped 8.5% to Rs 1,088. Mahindra & Mahindra plunged 7% to Rs 741, and Tata Motors declined 5% to Rs 767.

SBI declined 2.6% to Rs 2,062. ICICI Bank was down nearly 1% at Rs 1,240, and HDFC Bank was also down 1% at Rs 1,618.

HDFC, Reliance, Grasim, Ranbaxy and TCS tumbled 2% each to Rs 2,756, Rs 2,771, Rs 3,730, Rs 415 and Rs 1,049, respectively.

Cipla shed 1.7% at Rs 181. ONGC and ITC dropped 1.5% each to Rs 1,220 and Rs 180, respectively.

ACC and Reliance Communications were down over 1% each to Rs 1,068 and Rs 767, respectively.

...AND THE MOVERS

Reliance Energy surged nearly 4% to Rs 1,789.

BHEL moved up 1.6% to Rs 2,655, and Larsen & Toubro added 1% to Rs 4,323.

MIXED CLOSE FOR AUTO, BANK STOCKS

Punjab Tractors dropped 3.7% to Rs 210, and Hero Honda slipped 2.6% to Rs 725. TVS Motors and Ashok Leyland, however, moved up nearly 2% each to Rs 58 and Rs 41, respectively.

BoI zoomed 18% to Rs 373. Union Bank gained 8% to Rs 174. BoB, Yes Bank and Karnataka Bank also finished with gains. PNB was down 5% at Rs 511. Kotak Bank, OBC and Andhra Bank also declined.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Reliance Capital topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 828 crore followed by Reliance Petroleum (Rs 755.60 crore), Reliance Natural Resources (Rs 459.80 crore), Reliance Energy (Rs 419.80 crore) and Larsen & Toubro (Rs 328.55 crore).

Reliance Natural Resources led the volume chart with trades of around 3.98 crore shares followed by Reliance Petroleum (3.26 crore), Tata Teleservices (3.26 crore), Power Grid (1.94 crore) and MRPL (1.67 crore).