Sensex ends down 85pts, SBI drops 3%

Political uncertainty took its toll with the Sensex swinging over 400pts in a volatile session today.

The Sensex opened with a significant positive gap of 209 points at 14,458, and soon soared to a high of 14,555 - up 306 points from its previous close.

The index turned volatile in the noon session, and slipped into negative zone on reports that the central committee of CPM has endorsed the politburo call for cancelling the nuclear deal.

The index dropped to a low of 14,129 - down 426 points from the day's high. The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 85 points at 14,164.

The BSE Bankex dropped over 2% to 7225. The Oil & Gas index shed 1.7% to 7385, and the Healthcare index slipped over 1% to 3387. The FMCG index, however, moved up over 1% to 1862.

The market breadth was fairly negative - out of 2,665 stocks traded, 1,702 declined, 905 advanced and 58 were unchanged today.

INDEX MOVERS...

ACC surged 2% to Rs 972. Ambuja Cements gained 1.7% at Rs 133.

ITC rallied nearly 1.5% to Rs 161. Maruti and Satyam advanced 1.3% each to Rs 777 and Rs 423, respectively.

Infosys and Hindustan Unilever were up 1% each at Rs 1,808 and Rs 198, respectively.

...AND THE SHAKERS

Cipla slumped over 4% to Rs 168.

ONGC and SBI plunged 3% each to Rs 784 and Rs 1,415, respectively.

Reliance Energy and ICICI Bank dropped around 2.5% each to Rs 706 and Rs 826, respectively.

HDFC Bank shed 1.7% to Rs 1,100. TCS, Reliance Communications, Tata Steel, Ranbaxy and Reliance slipped around 1.5% each to Rs 1,008, Rs 487, Rs 560, Rs 349 and Rs 1,743, respectively.

Wipro was down over 1% at Rs 448.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

SEL Manufacturing topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 197.50 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 176 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs 145 crore), debutant Asian Granito (Rs 133.50 crore) and SBI (Rs 122.50 crore).

Nagarjuna Fertilisers led the volume chart with trades of around 2.12 crore shares followed by Asian Granito (1.42 crore), Tata Teleservices (1.40 crore), IFCI (1.19 crore) and SEL Manufacturing (1.11 crore).