Sensex slips 113pts; Satyam, Rel Comm drag

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 32 points at 14,684, and rallied to a new all-time intra-day high of 14,724. Profit-taking at higher levels saw the index pare gains and slip into the negative zone.

The index dropped to a low of 14,494 - down 230 points from the peak. The Sensex attempted a recovery in mid-noon trades, but eventually slipped back to lower levels.

The index finally settled with a loss of 113 points at 14,539. 

While the Midcap index shed 1.8% (109 points) to 6065, the Small-cap index slipped over 2% (161 points)  to 7490.

All BSE sectoral indices ended in red. The Healthcare and Metal indices were down around 1.5% each at 3843 and 9114, respectively.

The market breadth was extremely negative - out of 2,718 stocks traded, 2,033 declined, 643 advanced and the rest were unchanged today.

INDEX MOVERS & SHAKERS

Satyam dropped 3.5% to Rs 469. ACC and Reliance Communications shed nearly 3% each to Rs 1,035 and Rs 475, respectively.

Maruti, Larsen & Toubro, Gujarat Ambuja, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Energy and Tata Steel slipped around 2% each to Rs 941, Rs 1,716, Rs 139, Rs 753, Rs 556 and Rs 453, respectively.

Cipla and Dr.Reddy's declined around 1.5% each to Rs 251 and Rs 731, respectively.

HLL, Grasim, Ranbaxy, ONGC, Hindalco and TCS were down 1% each to Rs 203, Rs 2,827, Rs 417, Rs 884, Rs 173 and Rs 1,288, respectively.

NTPC gained 1.7% at Rs 145. Bajaj Auto, Wirpo and Tata Motors advanced over 1% each to Rs 3,047, Rs 642 and Rs 906, respectively.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Debutant Pochiraju topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 182.25 crore followed by Global Broadcast (Rs 157 crore), Auto Industries (Rs 154.50 crore), Reliance (Rs 110.50 crore) and Indiabulls (Rs 102.60 crore).

Pochiraju also led the volume chart with trades of around 3.30 crore shares followed by IFCI (1.92 crore), JK Synthetics (85.25 lakh), Srei Infrastructure (75.52 lakh) and Suryadeep (69.66 lakh).