Sensex sheds 128pts; SBI, RCom, HLL drag

The Sensex opened marginally higher at 14,140, up nine points, and spurted to a high of 14,153. The index, however, soon slipped into the negative zone due to lack of buying interest at higher levels.

Persistent selling mainly in banking and FMCG stocks saw the index slide to lower levels as the day progressed. The index touched a low of 13,968 - down 185 points from the day's high.

The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 128 points at 14,003.

The BSE Bankex, FMCG and Oil & Gas indices were down around 1% each at 7369, 1773 and 7397, respectively.

The market breadth was negative - out of 2,535 stocks traded, 1,374 declined, 1,070 advanced and 91 were unchanged today.

MOVERS & SHAKERS

SBI tumbled over 3% to Rs 1,289. Reliance Communications (RCom) shed 2.5% at Rs 486.

HLL and Larsen & Toubro plunged nearly 2% each to Rs 186 and Rs 1,871, respectively.

HDFC dropped 1.7% to Rs 1,751. Wipro, Reliance, Hero Honda and Ranbaxy slipped 1.5% each to Rs 531, Rs 1,673, Rs 695 and Rs 363, respectively.

Gujarat Ambuja and Tata Steel have declined 1.3% each to Rs 109 and Rs 595, respectively.

ACC, Bharti Airtel, Grasim, ITC and TCS were down around 1% each to Rs 797, Rs 797, Rs 2,356, Rs 152 and Rs 1,203, respectively.

Dr.Reddy's surged 2.7% to Rs 628. Satyam rallied 1.7% to Rs 486.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

Debutant Time Technoplast topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 636.30 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 148 crore), Nestle (Rs 103.65 crore), Indiabulls Real (Rs 100.75 crore) and SBI (Rs 82 crore).

Time Technoplast, also, led the volume chart with trades of around 1.33 crore shares followed by G V Films (81.25 lakh), IFCI (66.40 lakh), Reliance Natural (61.60 lakh) and Dabur (51.60 lakh).