Sensex ends down 74 points at 20,031

The Sensex opened with a marginal positve gap (four points) at 20,108, and moved up to a high of 20,171 in late morning deals.

Selling pressure in noon deals saw the index drop to a low of 19,936 - an intra-day swing of 235 points.

The Sensex finally closed with a loss of 74 points (0.37%) at 20,031. The Nifty lost 10 points to close at 6,048.

The BSE Smallcap and Midcap indices, however, finished with gains of over 1% each at 9472 and 12,195, respectively.

The BSE Healthcare index gained over 2.5% at 4308. The consumer durables index also moved up over 2.5% to 6204.

Advances were ahead of declines over 2:1 - out of 2,940 scrips traded, 2,077 logged gains and 837 declined today.

INDEX LOSERS...

Bharti dropped over 3% (Rs 35) to Rs 952.

ICICI Bank slipped nearly 3% (Rs 36) to Rs 1,207.

HDFC declined 2.5% (Rs 79) to Rs 3,059.

Satyam and Tata Motors were down 2% each at Rs 411 and Rs 744, respectively.

HDFC Bank, Tata Steel and L&T dropped over 1% each today.

...AND GAINERS

ACC moved up 3.6% (Rs 38) to Rs 1,103.

Ranbaxy and Cipla were up 2.6% each at Rs 422 and Rs 209, respectively.

Reliance closed with a gain of nearly 2% (Rs 56) at Rs 2,889.

HUL, ITC, Hindalco and Ambuja Cement also finished with gains.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

Sun TV was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 482 crore followed by debutant Kaushal Infra (Rs 251 crore), Kolte Patil (Rs 246 crore), JP Hydropower (Rs 207 crore) and IFCI (Rs 206 crore).