Sensex ends down 35pts, Satyam slips 5%

Backed by better-than-expected Reliance Q3 earnings, the Sensex opened with a positive gap of 53 points at 14,271. The index touched a high of 14,300, but soon tumbled into negative zone following Satyam's weaker-than-expected Q3 numbers.

The Sensex soon tumbled to a low of 14,068 - down 203 points from the day's high on unabated selling in pharma and technology stocks.

Fresh buying in Reliance and ITC in noon deals saw the index recoup all the loss and rebound into positive zone.

The index, however, could not hold gains, and eventaully closed with a loss of 35 points at 14,183.

The IT index tumbled nearly 2% to 5310. The Auto, Healthcare and Metal indices were down over 1% each to 5620, 3885 and 8973, respectively.

The market breadth was negative - out of 2,671 stocks traded, 1,619 declined, 1,008 advanced and 44 were unchanged today.

INDEX MOVERS & SHAKERS

Backed by a solid Q3 performance, Reliance opened with a bang at Rs 1,399 as against the previous close of Rs 1,367, and soon flared up to a new high of Rs 1,409. The stock pared gains on profit-taking at higher levels, and closed with a gain of 1% at Rs 1,380.

Reliance Communications rallied over 2% to Rs 447. Gujarat Ambuja and ITC surged 2% each to Rs 148 and Rs 175, respectively.

ICICI Bank and Bharti Airtel advanced over 1% each to Rs 986 and Rs 682, respectively. ACC and Grasim were up around 1% each at Rs 1,106 and Rs 2,895, respectively.

Satyam tumbled over 5% (Rs 27) to Rs 488. Wipro shed 3% to Rs 621, and TCS slipped 1% to Rs 1,298.

Ranbaxy dropped nearly 4% to Rs 414, and Cipla was down 2% at Rs 253.

Reliance Energy plunged 2.5% to Rs 515. ONGC declined over 2% to Rs 896. Bajaj Auto dropped 2% to Rs 2,730.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Tech Mahindra topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 335.20 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 176.80 crore), Satyam (Rs 131.50 crore), 3i Infotech (Rs 79.40 crore) and Ess Dee Aluminium (Rs 78.65 crore).

IFCI led the volume chart with trades of around 2.16 crore shares followed by Harig Cranks (1.71 crore), Silverline (95.65 lakh), Nila Infrastructures (88.50 lakh) and Reliance Natural Resources (73.1 lakh).