Sensex slips 44pts; Satyam surges 3%

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 54 points at 12,982, and zoomed to a new all-time intra-day high of 12,994 - just six points away from the magic level of 13,000.

Profit-taking after a three-day rally saw the index slip into the negative zone. The index dropped to a low of 12,819 - down 175 points from the peak.

Selective buying towards the close helped the index erase some loss and settle at 12,884 - down 44 points.

The BSE Metal index moved up 1.3% to 8908. The FMCG and Pharma indices slipped around 1% each to 2048 and 3625, respectively.

Declines beat advances 2:1 i.e there were two declining shares for every advancing stock. Out of 2,555 stocks traded, 1,639 declined, 845 advanced and 71 were unchanged today.

INDEX MOVERS & SHAKERS

Satyam surged 3.3% to Rs 450. BHEL rallied 2% to Rs 2,463, and Hero Honda added 1.6% to Rs 758.

ICICI Bank advanced 1% to Rs 727. Tata Steel and Wipro were the other prominent gainers today.

HDFC Bank dropped 3.6% to Rs 1,009. HLL, NTPC and HDFC slipped over 2% each to Rs 232, Rs 128 and Rs 1,515, respectively.

Grasim shed 1.7% to Rs 2,624. TCS and Ranbaxy declined around 1.5% each to Rs 1,114 and Rs 411, respectively.

Larsen & Toubro, Infosys, Gujarat Ambuja, Cipla and Reliance Energy were down over 1% each.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Atlanta topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 265.25 crore followed by Hindustan Zinc (Rs 198.80 crore), debutant Gayatri Projects (148.30 crore), Reliance (Rs 129.50 crore) and Satyam (Rs 98.15 crore).

Nandan Exim led the volume chart with trades of around 93 lakh shares followed by Atlanta (79 lakh), Gayatri Projects (46.80 lakh), Action Construction (36.30 lakh) and SAIL (34.65 lakh).