Sensex breaks 11-day rally, ends down 70 points

The Sensex opened with a negative gap of 47 points at 17,800 on the back of weak cues from the global markets. The index, however, rebounded into the positive zone and touched a high of 17,890 in early trades.

Profit-taking at higher levels dragged the index back into the negative zone. As selling continued the index dropped to a low of 17,495 - down 395 points from the day's high.

Selective buying helped the Sensex cut losses and eventually end at 17,777 - down 70 points. In the process, the index today ended its 11-day run with wherein the index had gained a whopping 2,343 points.

The Nifty closed at 5,208, down 2 points.

The market breadth was negative - out of 2,828 stocks traded, 1,609 declined, 1,166 advanced and 53 were unchanged today.

Index Movers

NTPC zoomed 4.3% to Rs 226. Tata Steel soared 3% to Rs 865.

Cipla, Maruti and Reliance Energy surged around 2% each to Rs 189, Rs 1,041 and Rs 1,478, respectively.

Ambuja Cements and Bajaj Auto rallied around 1.5% each to Rs 147 and Rs 2,580,

respectively.

Hindustan Unilever, Reliance and Tata Motros were up over 1% each at Rs 223, Rs 2,423 and Rs 799, respectively.

And The Shakers

ONGC and HDFC plunged 3.8% each to Rs 986 and Rs 2,500, respectively.

ICICI Bank dropped 2.5% to Rs 1,061. Wipro and Hindalco slipped around 2% each to Rs 461 and Rs 176, respectively.

Mahindra & Mahindra and Grasim shed around 1.5% each at Rs 758 and Rs 3,590, respectively.

ITC, HDFC Bank and Reliance Communications declined 1.3% each to Rs 185, Rs 1,404 and Rs 635, respectively.

Most Active Counter

Reliance Energy topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 463.70 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 242.30 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs 231.50 crore), Unitech (Rs 186 crore) and DLF (Rs 175 crore).

Himachal Futuristic led the volume chart with trades of around 2.58 crore followed by Ispat Industries (2.54 crore), Nagarjuna Fertilisers (2.45 crore), Tata Tele (1.67 crore) and Reliance Natural Resources (1.66 crore).