Volatile Sensex sheds another 156pts

Bouyed by positive cues from the US markets, the Sensex opened with a positive gap of 83 points at 16,136 and soon touched a high of 16,361. The index thereafter pared some gains, owing to weakness in Reliance and Bharti Airtel, and moved sideways. Bears resurfaced in the second half of the day after the European markets opened on a flat note.

The selling spread to select other heavyweights like BHEL, Larsen & Toubro, ONGC and IT stocks, which saw the index slide to a low of 15,805 - down 556 points from the day's high. Eventaully, the index ended with a loss of 156 points at 15,896.

In the process, the Sensex recorded losses throughout the week and was down 5.4% (915 points) for the week.

The NSE Nifty touched a high of 4,854, and then tumbled to a low of 4,688, before settling with a loss of 39 points at 4,712.

INDEX SHAKERS...

Reliance with a loss of 3.6% at Rs 1,931 was the single major dragger accounting for a loss of 80 points on the Sensex. Bharti shaved another 36 points off the index with a loss of 6.4% at Rs 292.

Reliance Communications tumbled over 7% to Rs 292. Reliance Infrastructure dropped 5% to Rs 1,056.

Tata Power declined 4.4% to Rs 1,343. ONGC and Wipro slipped nearly 3% each to Rs 1,133 and Rs 608, respectively.

ITC, Sun Pharma, DLF and TCS were the other major losers.

...AND THE MOVERS

ICICI Bank and Sterlite efforts went in vain as despite gains of 2.4% and 3.4% respectively, they managed to add just 41 points to the index.

Grasim, Tata Motors and Maruti were up around 2% each at Rs 2,180, Rs 565 and Rs 1,403, respectively.

ACC, NTPC, Hero Honda and Hindalco were the other notable gainers.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Debutant Indiabulls Power led the value chart with a turnover of Rs 405.10 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 301 crore), SBI (Rs 208.30 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 203 crore) and Bharti Airtel (Rs 193.46 crore).

Indiabulls Power also topped the volume chart with trades of around 1.03 billion shares followed by Unitech (28.46 million), Suzlon (13.20 million), Ispat Industries (10.88 million) and Reliance Natural Resources (9.22 million).