Sensex tumbles 83 pts on late selling

The Sensex opened strong with a 34 points gain at 6,652 and added other another six points to post its early intra-day high of 6,658. The markets, however, soon gave up its gains on the commencement of selling pressure and the index, thereafter ,languished in negative territory till mid-noon trades.

Unabated selling pressure across-the-board, barring few select counters, in late noon trades saw the index plunge deep into the red to touch an intra-day low of 6,515.

The Sensex, on selective buying support, came off its lows to end at 6,535 - down 83 points over its last close. The Nifty, too, fell sharply to end 23 points lower at 2,055.

While 26 Sensex stocks declined, only three advanced today. Advancing shares accounted for a volume of 49 lakh for Rs 191.92 crore, and declining shares registered a volume of 69 lakh amounting to Rs 472.24 crore.

The market breadth, however, was positive with 1,404 gainers, 971 losers and 66 stocks remaining unchanged.

Reliance, with a volume of over 11.61 lakh, ended 1.16% lower (Rs 6) at Rs 530. While HLL dipped 2.17% (Rs 4) to Rs 162, ITC was down a per cent (Rs 10) at Rs 1,331.

Infosys, on a volume of over 6.91 lakh, crashed 2.47% (Rs 51) to Rs 2,029. While Wipro declined 2.26% (Rs 16) to Rs 688, Satyam ended flat at Rs 404.

SBI ended with a per cent loss (Rs 5) at Rs 643. While HDFC Bank dropped 2.35% (Rs 13) to Rs 552, ICICI Bank is down 1.32% (Rs 5) at Rs 360.

ACC tumbles 2.70% (Rs 10) to Rs 365, with a volume of over 7.64 lakh. While Grasim lost 1.50% (Rs 20) to Rs 1,335, Gujarat Ambuja was down a per cent (Rs 3) at Rs 453.

Ranbaxy fell 2% (Rs 22) to Rs 1,056. While Cipla shed 2.39% (Rs 7) to Rs 278, Dr. Reddy's was down a per cent (Rs 5) at Rs 727.

HDFC plunged nearly 3% (Rs 24) to Rs 792, and Hindalco slumped 2.18% (Rs 30) to Rs 1,359. While Reliance Energy slipped 1.77% (Rs 10) to Rs 570, Tata Power was down 1.24% (Rs 5) at Rs 390.

Bharti (up Rs 3 to Rs 221) came off its highs, but still ended 1.52% higher (Rs 3) at Rs 221. Tisco also ended in the green with a steady gain of Rs 2 at Rs 399.

NTPC, which touched a high of Rs 94 in intra-day trades, ended marginally up at Rs 93 on traded volumes of over 37.69 lakh.

Select counters lost ground on selling pressuer. LML slumped 5.29% to Rs 48, and Moser dipped 4.98% to Rs 242. While PSL lost 4.41% to Rs 130, Shaw Wallace was down 3.79% at Rs 153. Wimco, Eveready, Voltas and Lupin were down 3% each.

Infosys led the value chart with a turnover of Rs 141 crore, followed by Tisco (Rs 108 crore), SBI (Rs 71 crore) and Reliance (Rs 61 crore), respectively.

The BSE-IT index was the major loser amongst the sectoral indices and lost 1.66% (down 43 pts) to 2,540, followed by BSE Teck (down 1.40% or 24 pts to 1,680), BSE FMCG (down 1.09% or 12 pts to 1,122) and BSE Bankex (down 1.08% or 40 pts to 3,672), respectively.