The Sensex on Wednesday opened with a negative gap of 30 points, at 12,101. After moving sideways till noon, the index rebounded into the positive zone and touched a high of 12,272.
However, the Sensex could not hold gains and plunged into the negative zone owing to profit taking at higher levels. Significant weakness in realty, metal and banking stocks dragged the index into the negative zone. The selling pressure was so intense that the index tumbled to a low of 11,899, down 373 points from the day's high.
The Sensex finally ended at 11,953, down 178 points. The NSE Nifty ended at 3,625, down 37 points.
The Realty index shed 3.7% at 2,388. The Bankex declined 3% to 6,094. The Metal index declined 2.8% to 7,535.
The market breadth was marginally negative. Out of 2,612 stocks traded, 1,310 declined and 1,204 advanced.
INDEX SHAKERS...
Jaiprakash Associates plunged 6.5% to Rs 138. HDFC slumped 6% to Rs 1,749.
DLF and Tata Steel dropped 5.5% each to Rs 246 and RS 271, respectively. ICICI Bank and Sterlite shed 5% each.
Tata Motors, ITC, Wipro, Maruti Suzuki, TCS, ACC, BHEL, SBI, HDFC Bank, Hindustan Unilever, Infosys, Larsen & Toubro and Reliance Communications declined 1-3% each.
...AND THE MOVERS
NTPC gained 2% to Rs 194. Hindalco advanced 1.5% to Rs 63.
Tata Power and Reliance Infrastructure added 1% each to Rs 913 and Rs 801, respectively.
MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS
Reliance Infrastructure topped the value chart with a total turnover of Rs 299.58 crore on the BSE so far. It is followed by ICICI Bank ( Rs 288.84 crore), Reliance (Rs 277 crore), Suzlon (Rs 253.91 crore) and Reliance Capital (Rs 244.02 crore).
Unitech has topped the volume chart with trades of around 46.98 million shares. Followed by Suzlon (22.08 million), Reliance Natural Resources (21.50 million), IFCI (18.74 million) and HDIL (11.43 million).