Sensex weakens

The bull run which run which vaulted the Sensex to the day's high of 6768 is slowly losing its steam. The index came under the grip of heavy selling pressure in engineering, pharma and old economy stocks.

However, the index managed to hold its gains aided by the positive sentiment prevalent among the IT, FMCG and PSU counters.

The Sensex has spiralled down to 6742 (up 31 points) after hovering in a narrow range of 20 points between 6740 - 6755.

The Nifty pared its earlier gains and is currently at 2077.

The sudden drop was a result of all-round selling off banking, media, pharma and auto auto stocks.

ITC advanced 3.8% from its previous close to Rs 1,584 after the company announced that the board would consider a stock split. HLL was the biggest gainer of till now. The stock flared up 5.6% to Rs 139.

Infosys and Wipro rose 2% each to Rs 2245 and Rs 726.5. Satyam Computers surged 4% to Rs 464.5.

IDBI surged 9.65% to Rs 89.8 on volumes of 25.76 lakh shares after hitting a high of Rs 95 in early trade. But SBI fell 3% to Rs 666 and ICICI Bank still lingers in red at Rs 398.

MTNL spurted 4% to Rs 122. Ranbaxy moved up 3.6%  to Rs 1,106.