Sensex slips 12pts, snaps 7-day rally

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 22 points at 11,499. After touching a high of 11,508, the index swung in and out of positive zone in the morning session.

Selling in the noon deals saw the index slip to a low of 11,409 - down 99 points from the day's high. The index, however, recovered towards the close and settled at 11,466 - down 12 points. The index thus broke its seven-session winning run today.

The BSE Healthcare index surged over 2% to 3557. The Auto index gained 1% at 4924. The Metal index dropped 1.5% to 8080.

The market breadth was slightly positive - out of 2,566 stocks traded, 1,265 advanced, 1,236 declined and the rest were unchanged today.

INDEX MOVERS & SHAKERS

Maruti rallied 2.5% to Rs 840. Hero Honda gained 2% at Rs 706, and Tata Motors added 1.5% at Rs 850.

Cipla surged over 2% to Rs 250. Ranbaxy was up nearly 1% at Rs 408.

Gujarat Ambuja moved up nearly 2% to Rs 110. ACC spurted 1.5% to Rs 903.

HLL, TCS and HDFC advanced over 1% each to Rs 238, Rs 970 and Rs 1,302, respectively.

Hindalco slipped over 2% to Rs 161. Larsen & Toubro, Reliance Communications and Reliance Energy declined around 1.5% each to Rs 2,364, Rs 290 and Rs 456, respectively.

Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel, HDFC Bank and Reliance were down around 1% each at Rs 410, Rs 513, Rs 840 and Rs 1,055, respectively.

OTHER BUZZERS

IndusInd Bank zoomed over 17% to Rs 48 on the buzz that the bank is planning private placement of equity with a foreign bank.

MNC pharma and PSU oil refinery scrips logged sharp gains today.

Abbott gained nearly 9% to Rs 548. Pfizer moved up over 8% to Rs 800, Aventis, Novartis, GSK Pharma and Merck closed with gains of over 6% each.

BPCL gained nearly 8% to Rs 375. HPCL added 7% to Rs 273. Kochi Refineries, IBP and MRPL also finished with gains.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Mahindra Gesco topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 251.64 crore followed by Bombay Dyeing (Rs 198.56 crore), Reliance (Rs 140.15 crore), Bajaj Hindustan (Rs 76.61 crore) and Tata Motors (Rs 72.78 crore).

G V Films led the volume chart with trades of around 86.92 lakh shares followed by LML (55.95 lakh), Balrampur Chini (55.72 lakh), Gujarat Sidhi (35.61 lakh) and Essar Oil (33.55 lakh).