Sensex ends down 97pts; L&T zooms 7%

The Sensex opened tad lower at 14,501 - down seven points - amid a sell-off in the Chinese markets following a hike in tax on securities transaction which saw the Shanghai Composite index tumble 7% in early trades.

However, aggressive buying in capital goods stocks like BHEL and Larsen & Toubro saw the index rebound into the positive zone and rally to a high of 14,576. The index, however, could not hold gains for long.

Weakness, which, crept in from selling in FMCG and technology stocks spread to other sectors towards the end. The index tumbled to a low of 14,379 - down 197 points from the day's high. The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 97 points at 14,411.

The NSE Nifty touched a fresh all-time intra-day high of 4302 in opening trades. However, the index plunged to a low of 4241, before settling with a hefty loss of 44 points at 4250.

Elsewhere in Asia, China's Shanghai Composite index cracked 5.5% (239 points) to 4095. The Hang Seng shed 209 points to 20,260, and the Nikkei slipped 89 points to 17,583.

The BSE IT index slipped nearly 2% to 4814. The FMCG index dropped 1.7% to 1881, and Metal index shed 1.4% to 10,345. The Bankex was down over 1% at 7505. The Capital Goods index, however, moved up 1.7% to 11,079.

The market breadth was negative - out of 2,652 stocks traded, 1,594 declined, 991 advanced and 67 were unchanged today.

ON SLIPPERY GROUND

Reliance Communications and Reliance Energy tumbled 3.7% each to Rs 501 and Rs 535, respectively. HDFC Bank shed 3.5% to Rs 1,105.

BHEL plunged 3% to Rs 2,768. Hindalco dropped 2.7% to Rs 141.

Infosys slipped 2.4% to Rs 1,904. Maruti and HLL declined around 2% each to Rs 803 and Rs 199, respectively.

Cipla, ACC and ITC were down around 1.7% each to Rs 215, Rs 856 and Rs 162, respectively.

TCS and Satyam slipped 1.5% each to Rs 1,214 and Rs 465, respectively. ICICI Bank declined 1% to Rs 911.

Larsen & Toubro (L&T) zoomed over 7% to Rs 1,994. Hero Honda surged 1.7% to Rs 697, and HDFC spurted over 1% to Rs 1,833.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

Debutant MIC Electronics topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 492.60 crore followed by Larsen & Toubro (Rs 218 crore), Orbit Corp (Rs 150.40 crore), Reliance (Rs 150.40 crore) and Infosys (Rs 120.70 crore).

MIC Electronics, also, led the volume chart with trades of around 1.45 crore shares followed by Reliance Natural (1.42 crore), IFCI (71.80 lakh), JP HydroPower (70 lakh) and Orbit Corp (60 lakh).