Sensex ends flat, Reliance drops 4%

The Sensex resumed with a healthy positive gap of 18 points at 7,774. It soon zoomed past the 7,800-mark to touch a new all-time peak of 7,844 on relentless all-round buying support.

Nervousness soon gripped the market and the index slipped into the red from higher levels before renewed buying kept the sentiment bullish for better part of the trading session thereafter.

The market-mood turned bearish once again towards the fag-end as selling pressure led by the Reliance counter dragged the index to a low of 7,741 -  down 103 pts over the day's high.

The Sensex finally ended unchanged over its last close at 7,756.

The market breadth ended weak as 886 stocks advanced against 1,631 declined on the BSE.

Among sectoral indices BSE IT index rose 2.24% to 2,935, and BSE CG index moved up 2.10% to 4,160. BSE Teck index was up 1.32% at 1,985. BSE Oil&Gas index, however, declined 2% to 3,625.

ITC scaled up 2.68% (Rs 45) to Rs 1,714, and ONGC was up a per cent (Rs 8) at Rs 965.

Reliance crashed 3.81% (Rs 28) to Rs 714. HLL and NTPC declined slightly over 2% each to Rs 167 (down Rs 4) and Rs 97 (down Rs 2), respectively. Reliance Energy lost 1.79% (Rs 12) to Rs 632.

Infosys advanced 2.48% (Rs 57) to Rs 2,357. While Satyam moved up 3.58% (Rs 19) to Rs 544, TCS and Wipro gained a per cent each to Rs 1,300 (up Rs 9) and Rs 729 (up Rs 5), respectively.

L&T shot up 3.81% (Rs 47) to Rs 1,292, while Hindalco jumped 1.72% (Rs 22) to Rs 1,312. While Tisco dipped 1.43% (Rs 5) to Rs 368, Tata Power slipped a per cent (Rs 3) to Rs 406.

SBI and HDFC Bank were up a per cent each at Rs 811 (up Rs 8) and Rs 676 (up Rs 7), respectively. ICICI Bank, however, eased into the red to Rs 517 - down Rs 3.

ACC dropped 1.91% (Rs 8) to Rs 434, and Gujarat Ambuja was down 2.31% at Rs 66. Grasim, however, gained 1.75% (Rs 21) to Rs 1,197.

Tata Motors tumbled 3.30% (Rs 17) to Rs 509, and Hero Honda lost a per cent (Rs 6) to Rs 623. While Bajaj spurted 3.29% (Rs 48) to Rs 1,515, Maruti ended marginally higher at Rs 500.

Tech stocks attracted strong buying support. i-flex, which is to be acquired by Oracle, surged 4.59% (Rs 41) to Rs 937. KPIT Cummins, HCL Tech, Geometric and GTL ended higher in a range of 3-4%.

Reliance led the value chart with a turnover of Rs 1,002 crore, followed by Reliance Capital (Rs 176 crore), Jain Irrigation Systems (Rs 136 crore) and SBI (Rs 118 crore).