Discuss   |      Email   |      Print   |   Get latest news on your desktop

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 140 points at 15,082, and soon touched a high of 15,130. However, profit-taking at higher levels forced the index slip into the negative zone.

Significant weakness in metal and technology stocks saw the index drop to a low of 14,608 - down 522 points from the day's high.

The Sensex recovered some ground towards the close and finally ended with a loss of 165 points at 14,777, thereby breaking its five-day winning streak wherein the index had surged nearly 19%.

The market breadth was negative - out of 2,783 stocks traded, 1,454 declined, 1,262 advanced and 67 were unchanged today.

The NSE Nifty slipped 43 points to close at 4,434.

INDEX SHAKERS. . .

TCS [Get Quote] slumped 6.5% to Rs 803. Tata Steel [Get Quote] plunged 5.5% to Rs 631, and ACC tumbled over 5% to Rs 561.

Reliance Communications [Get Quote] shed 4.5% at Rs 502. SBI [Get Quote] dropped 4.3% to Rs 1,478.

BHEL slipped 2.7% to Rs 1,724. NTPC and Infosys [Get Quote] declined around 2.5% each to Rs 185 and Rs 1,565, respectively.

Bharti Airtel [Get Quote], Satyam [Get Quote] and Larsen & Toubro were down over 2% each at Rs 798, Rs 369 and Rs 2,711, respectively.

Mahindra & Mahindra declined 1.7% to Rs 545. ICICI Bank [Get Quote] and Hindustan Unilever slipped around 1.5% each to Rs 727 and Rs 228, respectively.

. . .AND THE MOVERS

ONGC [Get Quote] surged over 3% to Rs 1,027. DLF gained 2.3% at Rs 507.

Reliance and Maruti [Get Quote] moved up 1.8% each to Rs 2,307 and Rs 618, respectively. Reliance Infrastructure was up over 1% at Rs 1,027.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Reliance Natural Resources [Get Quote] topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 718.75 crore followed by Reliance Capital [Get Quote] (Rs 606 crore), Reliance Power (Rs 319 crore), Reliance (Rs 283.70 crore) and Reliance Infrastructure (Rs 218 crore).

Reliance Natural Resources led the volume chart with trades of around 7.30 crore shares followed by Chambal Fertilisers (1.95 crore), Nagarjuna Fertilisers (1.85 crore), Reliance Power (1.78 crore) and IFCI (1.73 crore).