The Sensex, which opened with a loss of 10 points at 4,861, witnessed sluggish trading for better part of the trading session today. Although the markets gained in patches in the opening session, strong buying in select counters towards early noon deals propelled the gains of index to an intra-day high of 4,894.
The markets soon drifted into the red and displayed weak trends thereafter. Intense selling pressure towards the fag-end in PSU, select heavyweight, cement, tech and other old economy stocks saw the index slip deep into the red to touch an intra-day low of 4,832.
The Sensex finally wrapped up the session with a loss of 27 points at 4,844. The Nifty lost 10 points to close at 1,527.
While 12 Sensex stocks advanced, 18 declined today. Advancing shares accounted for a volume of 33 lakh for Rs 124.05 crore, and declining shares registered a volume of 2.09 crore amounting to Rs 791.64 crore, respectively.
SBI slumped 3.22% (Rs 14) to Rs 431. BHEL, which bagged Rs 142-cr order from NHPC, still ended at lower levels with a loss of 1.73% (Rs 9) at Rs 504.
While HPCL lost 2.80% (Rs 9) to Rs 320, ONGC ended lower by 1.39% (Rs 9) at Rs 667. MTNL, however, closed up a rupee at Rs 132.
Reliance was down a per cent (Rs 4) at Rs 431. While ITC clocked a per cent gain (Rs 7) to Rs 917, HLL closed up a tad at Rs 127.
Grasim dropped 2.41% (Rs 25) to Rs 1,013. While ACC was down 1.23% (Rs 3) at Rs 237, Gujarat Ambuja dipped 1.11% (Rs 3) to Rs 272.
Tata Motors declined 2% (Rs 8) to Rs 377. While Maruti was down a per cent (Rs 4) at Rs 401, Bajaj and Hero Honda, however, closed up a per cent each at Rs 901 (up Rs 8) and Rs 516 (up Rs 4), respectively.
Wipro and Satyam ended a per cent lower each at Rs 524 (down Rs 4) and Rs 308 (down Rs 2), respectively. Infosys, however, closed with a modest gain of Rs 5 at Rs 1,430.
ICICI Bank shed 3.86% (Rs 9) to Rs 235. While Tisco closed down a per cent (Rs 2) at Rs 302, Tata Power was down a rupee at Rs 236.
Cipla rose 3% (Rs 7) to Rs 224. While Ranbaxy advanced 2% (Rs 19) to Rs 932, Dr. Reddy's ended up a mere Rs 2 at Rs 736.
Bharti attracted decent buying support, and moved up 2.82% (Rs 4) to Rs 148. While Hindalco was up Rs 4 at Rs 1,032, Zee closed up a rupee at Rs 125.