Sensex plunges 100 points

The BSE Sensex opened on a positive note, hit the day's high of 7175.15 in early morning trades and gradually started paring its gains. Profit booking became the order the of the day, pulling the index from its higher levels by afternoon trades.

After breaching the 7,100 support mark, the index plunged by another 50 points indicating that the markets have entered into a correction mode. The BSE Sensex closed 102 points below at 7,049 (down 1.43%) from yesterday's close of 7,151, which is the day's low.

The Sensex fluctuated wildely between 7,080 - 7,110 levels as the expiry of derivatives for the June Futures nears.

Frenzied selling in IT, metal, PSUs and old economy counters dragged the index significantly below its previous close, hitting the brakes on the bull rally. The BSE Metal index dropped 2% and the BSE IT index shed 1.1%.

he Reliance group stocks were the worst hit on the index. Reliance Industries fell 3% (down Rs 19) to Rs 629. Relaince Capital declined 4% (down Rs 14) to Rs 351. Reliance Energy and IPCL too spiralled down 2% to Rs 625 and Rs 172, respectively.

HLL moved up 1.5% to Rs 163 on volumes of 2,316 lakh shares, while ITC, which was trading in the red zone throughout the day, dwindled 3% (down Rs 44) to Rs 1,591.

The losers included Gujarat Ambuja Cements down 3.7% to Rs 59.95, Tata Steel down 3.33% to Rs 348) and Tata Motors down 2.37% to Rs 422.7.

The index reported huge block deals and heavy volumes today. Reliance Capital was the top traded counter, with a volume of turnover of Rs 31937 lakh. It was followed by SBI (Rs 7812 lakh) and Infosys (Rs 5583 lakh).

The banking scrips witnessed a mixed trend on the indices. SBI fell by a per cent to Rs 662. ICICI Bank notched up to Rs 417. HDFC Bank slipped by Rs 2 to Rs 588.

Among the sectoral indices, the CNX Midcap index dipped 1.17% while the BSE auto index fell 1.4%.

However, select stocks have bucked the trend. ACC added Rs 2 to Rs 379, Bajaj Auto gained Rs 11 at Rs 1,330 and Bhariti Tele too notched up by a per cent to Rs 241. Bharti Televentures rose marginally to Rs 240.

Most of the pharma stocks managed to stay in the positive zone. Cipla moved up to Rs 310. Dr Reddy firmed up to Rs 726 during the fag and of the trading session after lingering in red during the day.

BPCL dropped 2% to Rs 368. HPCL and ONGC shed a per cent each to Rs 309 and Rs 978, respectively. IOC closed marginally up at Rs 432.

NTPC and Bhel lost 2% each at Rs 82 and Rs 710, respectively. Shipping corp nudged lower by 2% to Rs 143 and Sail dipped 3% to Rs 49.

Record high crude prices weighed on auto stocks. Tata Motors shed 3.6% to Rs 417, Hero Honda shed 1.5% to Rs 576.10, and car major Maruti Udyog lost 1.1% to Rs 471.90.