Sensex slips 65pts, HLL, Infosys drop 2%

The Sensex opened with a negative gap of 54 points at 14,199. After swinging into positive zone for a brief while in morning deals, the index slipped to a low of 14,158.

Fresh buying at lower levels saw the index rebound into positive zone and touch a high of 14,313 - up 155 points from the day's low. The index, however, could not hold gains and slipped again in late noon deals. The Sensex finally settled with a loss of 65 points at 14,188.

The BSE IT index plunged 1.7% to 5439. The BSE FMCG and Oil & Gas indices were the other prominent losers today.

The market breadth was fairly negative - out of 2,647 stocks traded, 1,514 declined and 1,079 advanced today.

A MIXED BAG

Ranbaxy and Satyam dropped over 3% each to Rs 383 and Rs 462, respectively.

Infosys, HLL and BHEL slipped around 2% each to Rs 2,313, Rs 196 and Rs 2,317, respectively.

HDFC Bank, Grasim and Reliance Communications were down over 1% each to Rs 1,015, Rs 2,539 and Rs 447, respectively.

Hero Honda rallied over 3% to Rs 740. Tata Steel surged 2.5% to Rs 455.

Bharti Airtel advanced nearly 2% to Rs 806, and Hindalco added 1.4% to Rs 150. HDFC was up over 1% to Rs 1,673.

MOST ACTIVE

Global Broadcast topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 320.70 crore followed by Aptech (Rs 134.40 crore), Indiabulls (Rs 99.60 crore), IFCI (Rs 95.40 crore) and Suzlon (Rs 92.20 crore).

IFCI led the volume chart with trades of around 3.15 crore shares followed by Zee News (74.25 lakh), Silverline (68.80 lakh), Himachal Futuristic (65 lakh), Aptech (57.40 lakh).