Sensex sheds 63pts; tech stocks slip

The Sensex opened nine points higher at 9383, and soon touched a high of 9398. Sellling commenced thereafter, and the index slipped into negative zone to touch a low of 9287 - down 111 points from the high.

The Sensex staged a smart recovery in noon deals, and sneaked into positive zone for a brief period. However, a fresh round of selling - mainly in technology stocks - towards the end saw the index end with a substantial loss of 63 points at 9311.

The BSE Teck index slipped 1.4% to 2360. The BSE Metal index declined 1.3% to 6507, and the Bankex was down 1% at 5126. While the BSE Midcap Index dropped 0.5% to 4626, the Smallcap Index shed 0.6% to 6219.

Declines continued to be ahead of advances - out of 2,566 stocks traded, 1,476 declined, 1,038 advanced and the rest were flat today.

Reliance swung in a range of Rs 886-864 before closing with a loss of 1.4% (Rs 12) at Rs 873. Reliance Energy surged 2.7% to Rs 610.

Infosys slipped 2.3% to Rs 2,780, and TCS declined 2.6% to Rs 1,608. While Satyam shed 1.6% to Rs 727, Wipro closed flat at Rs 460.

ACC spurted 2.6% to Rs 551, and Gujarat Ambuja was up 0.6% at Rs 89. Grasim, however, shed 1.5% to Rs 1,426.

Larsen & Toubro moved up 2.2% to Rs 1,844. Ranbxy gained 1.7% to Rs 391, and BHEL added 1% to Rs 1,477.

ICICI Bank declined nearly 2% to Rs 573. HDFC was down 1% at Rs 1,170.

Tata Steel tumbled nearly 3% to Rs 356. NTPC dropped 1.6% to Rs 114.

Bartronics zoomed 18% to Rs 133. Rana Sugars, Radha Madhav and Ganesh Forgings surged 12-15% each. Mirc Electronics, Ramco Systems, Alstom Projects, CESC and Welspun Gujarat also ended with substantial gains.

Maharashtra Scooters tumbled over 7% to Rs 350. Geometric Software dropped 6.5% to Rs 103. Reliance Industrial Infrastructure, Hanil Era Textiles, Archies, UTV Software, Liberty Shoes, MTNL and SAIL declined in the range of 3-6% each.

Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 643.78 crore followed by Educomp (Rs 232.18 crore), Bartronics (Rs 104.10 crore), SBI (Rs 94.88 crore) and Infosys (Rs 76.06 crore).

Bartronics topped the volume chart with trades of around 81.54 lakh shares followed by Reliance (73.94 lakh shares), Educomp (72.60 lakh shares), Radha Madhav (54.81 lakh shares) and GV Films (34.08 lakh shares).