Sensex ends down 240pts; TCS drops 5%

The Sensex opened with a negative gap of 90 points at 13,034, and unabated selling, mainly in technology stocks, saw the index languish in negative zone for most part of the trading session today. The Sensex dropped to a low of 12,861 before closing with a loss of 240 points at 12,884.

The BSE IT index tumbled 3.5% to 4832. The Auto index plunged 2.6% to 4820, and the Bankex shed 2.3% to 6535.

Losers outpaced gainers in the ratio of 3:1 i.e. there were three declining stocks for every gainer. Out of 2,648 stocks traded, 1,935 declined, 651 advanced and 62 were unchanged today.

TECH BREAK-DOWN

Technology stocks bore the brunt of the selling today. TCS and Wipro plunged nearly 5% each to Rs 1,201 and Rs 558, respectively. Satyam tumbled 3.5% to Rs 456, and Infosys slipped over 3% to Rs 1,9932.

Among other technology stocks, HCL Technologies, MphasiS BFL, Patni Computers and Tech Mahindra were down 2-5% each.

Tata Motors dropped 4.7% to Rs 719, and SBI shed 4% to Rs 974.

HDFC declined 3.5% to Rs 1,519. Larsen & Toubro slipped 3% to Rs 1,566.

Maruti, Hindalco and Bharti Airtel were down around 2.5% each to Rs 799, Rs 130 and Rs 758, respectively.

ICICI Bank, Gujarat Ambuja, Bajaj Auto, Reliance Communications, Hero Honda, HDFC Bank, Reliance and Cipla declined 1-2% each.

Ranbaxy surged 3% to Rs 338. Reliance Energy advanced 1.8% to Rs 484, and ONGC added 1.5% to Rs 866.

Dr.Reddy's and BHEL were up over 1% each at Rs 690 and Rs 2,280, respectively.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

Indiabulls Real Estate topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 491.75 crore followed by Infosys (Rs 127.22 crore), TCS (Rs 85.18 crore), IFCI (Rs 79.37 crore) and Reliance (Rs 78.02 crore).

IFCI led the volume chart with trades of around 2.40 crore shares followed by Indiabulls Real Estate (1.73 crore), Essar Shipping (44.50 lakh), Sparsh BPO (37.61 lakh) and Deccan Aviation (34.93 lakh).