Sensex sheds 48 points; Archies zooms 20%

The Sensex, which, opened a tad higher at 9400 soon spurted to touch a new all-time intra-day high of 9428 in the opening deals. However, the index could not hold on the gains for long as profit-taking at higher levels forced the index to slip into red. The index tumbled to a low of 9311, down 117 points from its peak.

Thereafter, the index staged a smart recovery during the late noon deals but only to give-up towards the close. The Sensex finally closed with losses of 48 points at 9346.

The Nifty touched a new life-time intra-day high of 2853, and then slipped to the day's low of 2815, before settling 17 points lower at 2826.

Ranbaxy continued its downtrend following the negative UK court ruling. The stock slumped 3% to Rs 356.

It was followed by Satyam down 2.7% at Rs 713 and TCS at Rs 1,693, down 2.3%.

Profit taking in Hindalco, Maruti, BHEL, Hero Honda, Infosys, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel, Bajaj Auto and SBI saw them shed 1-2% each.

Old economy heavyweights, HLL, Reliance Industries and ONGC ended on a flat note at Rs 195, Rs 855 and Rs 1,153, respectively, while ITC was down 0.9% at Rs 143.

On the other hand, NTPC was the star performer of the day, the stock surged 4.4% to Rs 111.

Late buying at the Dr.Reddy's counter saw the stock spurt by 4% to close at Rs 984.

HDFC Bank advanced 3.5% to Rs 736.

Wipro up 2.1% at Rs 465, Tata Motors up 1.6% at Rs 633 and Larsen & Toubro up 1% at Rs 1,748 were the other notable gainers among the Sensex stocks.

Among other gainer and losers, Archies hit the 20% upper limit at Rs196 after the company announced its plans to open its new range of retail chain under the brand name 'STUPID CUPID'.

Castrol gained nearly 5% at Rs 268, Pfizer added 3.7% to Rs 954. IndusInd Bank at Rs 60.50 and MTNL at Rs 147 were up 3.5% each.

Bombay Dyeing tumbled 4.7% to Rs 361. Sun Pharma was down 3.6% at Rs 667. Tata Elxsi, RCF and Moser Baer shed 3% each.