Sensex ends flat, ICICI Bank zooms 5%

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 44 points at 19,103, and rallied to an intra-day high of 19,174. Profit-taking, on account of weak global markes, saw the index slip into negative zone in late morning deals.

The index dropped to a low of 18,778 - down 396 points from the peak - in mid-noon deals, but fresh buying at lower levels saw the index recover losses by the closing bell.

The Sensex finally ended almost flat at 19,052 - down seven points.

The market breadth was negative - out of 2,817 stocks traded, 1,543 declined, 1,212 advanced and 62 were unchanged today.

INDEX SHAKERS...

Infosys and Hindustan Unilever dropped 3% each to Rs 1,868 and Rs 212, respectively.

Mahindra & Mahindra slipped 2.3% to Rs 815. Larsen & Toubro dropped 2% to Rs 3,346.

SBI declined 1.7% to Rs 1,924. Bajaj Auto, Bharti Airtel, ACC and Grasim dropped around 1.5% each to Rs 2,540, Rs 1,110, Rs 1,267 and Rs 3,759, respectively.

ONGC, Cipla, Wipro and ITC were down over 1% each to Rs 1,176, Rs 185, Rs 486 and Rs 185, respectively.

...AND THE MOVERS

ICICI Bank zoomed over 5% to Rs 1,157. Hindalco soared 4.5% to Rs 197.

Reliance Energy rallied 3% to Rs 1,904. Maruti and NTPC surged 2% each to Rs 1,187 and Rs 231, respectively.

Satyam moved up 1.6% to Rs 450. Reliance Communications, HDFC Bank and Ambuja Cements were up around 1% each at Rs 761, Rs 1,505 and Rs 153, respectively.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Reliance Energy topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 658 crore followed by Power Grid (Rs 433 crore), Reliance (Rs 394 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs 296 crore) and Reliance Communications (Rs 259.50 crore).

Power Grid led the volume chart with trades of around 3.56 crore shares followed by Tata Teleservices (3.53 crore), IFCI (1.77 crore), Reliance Natural Resources (1.72 crore) and Reliance Petroleum (1.21 crore).