Sensex ends down 35pts, ICICI Bank gains 2%

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 109 points at 20,075, and hit a high of 20,096 in early deals.

The index, however, could not hold gains, and profit-taking saw the index drop to a low of 19,834 in noon deals.

The Sensex finally closed with a marginal loss of 35 points at 19,931.

The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained over 1% each at 9117 and 11,531, respectively.

The market breadth was extremely bullish - out of 2,903 scrips traded, 2,061 logged gains.

INDEX LOSERS....

TCS slipped 2.4% to Rs 1,036.

BHEL declined over 2% to Rs 2,677. Cipla also closed with a loss of over 2% at Rs 193.

HDFC and HDFC Bank dropped over 1.5% each to Rs 2,872 and Rs 1,693, respectively.

Reliance was down nearly 1% at Rs 2,822.

..... AND GAINERS

Hindalco moved up nearly 3% to Rs 193.

ICICI Bank gained over 2% to Rs 1,274.  Infosys added 1.8% to close at Rs 1,748. DLF moved up over 1% to Rs 1,026.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

Tata Teleservices was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 232 crore followed by Reliance Petroleum (Rs 212 crore), Ispat (Rs 191 crore), Essar Oil (Rs 183 crore) and IFCI (Rs 150 crore).