Banking, IT stocks pull down Sensex

The Sensex opened flat at 8,942 - down two points. The index after marginally shaky start firmed up and rallied past the 9,000-mark to a high of 9,024.

The index however could not hold gains for long as profit-taking in banking and weakness in IT stocks dragged the index back into the negative territory. The index tumbled to a low of 8,802 - down 222 points from the day's high.

Selective buying at lower levels helped the index recover some losses at close. The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 80 points at 8,864.

The NSE Nifty ended at 2,757, down 20 points.

The BSE Bankex dropped 2% to 4,006, and the IT index shed 1.7% at 2,161. The Auto index however advanced 1% to 2,855.

The market breadth was marginally positive - out of 2,574 stocks traded, 1,331 advanced, 1,136 declined and the rest were unchanged on Tuesday.

INDEX SHAKERS...

TCS slumped 4.3% to Rs 497. SBI and Jaiprakash Associates tumbled nearly tumbled nearly 4% each to Rs 950 and Rs 74, respectively.

HDFC Bank slipped over 2% to Rs 825. Ranbaxy and Reliance also shed 2% each at Rs 145 and Rs 1,300, respectively.

HDFC, DLF and Infosys dropped 1.8% each to Rs 1,364, Rs 159 and Rs 1,266, respectively.

Larsen & Toubro declined 1.5% to Rs 617. ACC and Grasim were down 1% each at Rs 557 and Rs 1,463, respectively.

...AND THE MOVERS

Tata Motors rallied 3.5% to Rs 172. Hindalco surged 2.3% to Rs 44.

ITC, Maruti and NTPC moved up around 1.5% each to Rs 173, Rs 710 and Rs 174, respectively.

OTHER PROMINENT LOSERS...

Tata Teleservices slumped nearly 10% to Rs 22. IVRCL Infrastructure, Rei Agro, India Cement, United Phosphorous, Aditya Birla Nuvo, Axis Bank, Indiabulls Realestate, Marico, Piramal Healthcare, Punjab National Bank and Bank of Baroda dropped 4-6% each.

...AND THE GAINERS

Rolta zoomed 18% to Rs 54. Akruti City soared over 12% to Rs 1,578. Madras Cements, Nagarjuna Construction, Thermax, Biocon, Welspun Guj, Aban Offshore, GMR Infrastructure, Jai Corp, United Spirits and Crompton Greaves gained 5-8% each.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

Akruti City topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 459.22 crore followed by ICICI Bank (Rs 304.11 crore), Reliance (Rs 252.64 crore), Educomp Solutions (Rs 184.36 crore) and Everonn Systems (Rs 136.62 crore).

Rolta led the volume chart with trades of around 1.92 crore shares followed by Unitech (1.81 crore), Reliance Natural Resources (1.66 crore), Cals Refineries (1.41 crore) and Suzlon (1.32 crore).