Sensex ends flat, Reliance drops 4%

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 18 points at 7,774, and zoomed past the 7,800-mark to touch a new all-time high of 7,844 on relentless buying across counters.

The market-mood turned bearish towards noon as selling pressure, led by Reliance, dragged the index to a low of 7,741 - a drop of 103 points from the day's high.

The Sensex finally ended on a flat note at 7,756.

The market breadth was weak - out of 2,567 scrips traded, 1,632 declined, 885 advanced and 50 were unchanged today.

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

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.

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

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.

While L&T shot up 3.81% (Rs 47) to Rs 1,292, Hindalco jumped 1.72% (Rs 22) to Rs 1,312. Tisco dipped 1.43% (Rs 5) to Rs 368, and 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, declined Rs 3 to Rs 517.

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 the range of 3-4% each.

JCT topped the volume chart with trades in over 3.09 crore shares followed by Reliance (1.36 crore) and GV Films (1.10 crore).

Reliance was the most active counter 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).