Sensex sheds 87 points at close

After crashing over 100 points on Friday, the Sensex today opened with a loss of 23 points at 4,810. While the market sentiment remained bearish through the session, steep selling pressure across-the-board in late noon deals pushed the index deep into the red to an intra-day low of 4,725.

Although the markets trimmed its losses on selective buying support during the intra-day trades; sharp selling, particularly, in cement, tech and other select old economy stocks saw the Sensex finally close with a loss of 87 points at 4,746. The Nifty lost 27 points to close at 1,481.

While only seven Sensex stocks advanced, 23 declined today. Advancing shares accounted for a volume of 92 lakh for Rs 356.17 crore, and declining shares registered a volume of 2.04 crore amounting to Rs 710.50 crore.

PSU frontliners lost ground on sustained selling pressure.

SBI tanked 6.11% (Rs 29) to Rs 440. MTNL lost 2.84% (Rs 4) to Rs 126. While BHEL slipped into the red towards the close to end 1.21% lower (Rs 5) at Rs 450, HPCL (down Rs 3 to Rs 344) ended on a subdued note. ONGC also ended in the red at Rs 634 - down Rs 3.

Cement and tech pivotals were hammered today. Grasim crashed 6.40% (Rs 64) to Rs 932. While Gujarat Ambuja slumped 4.78% (Rs 14) to Rs 270, ACC lost 3.65% (Rs 9) to Rs 236.

Infosys slipped below the Rs 5,000-mark, and plunged 2.19% (Rs 112) to Rs 4,996. Satyam dropped 4.95% (Rs 15) to Rs 286. Wipro also ended deep into the red at Rs 1,443 - down Rs 37 or 2.48%.

Heavyweights

ended on a divergent note. ITC declined 1.52% (Rs 14) to Rs 878. HLL was down a rupee at Rs 128. Reliance, however, drifted into the green to end up a per cent (Rs 3) at Rs 435.

HDFC shed 2.59% (Rs 16) to Rs 590. ICICI Bank lost 3.16% (Rs 8) to Rs 251. Tisco tumbled 5.88% (Rs 17) to Rs 273. While Tata Power dipped 3.81% (Rs 9) to Rs 222, Bharti came off its lows to end with a loss of 1.62% (Rs 2) at Rs 139. Hindalco, however, clocked a per cent gain (Rs 6) to close at Rs 943.

While pharma majors, too, had a weak outing, auto stocks ended on a mixed note.

Dr. Reddy's lost 1.40% (Rs 11) to Rs 795. While Ranbaxy slipped a per cent (Rs 10) to Rs 991, Cipla was down a rupee at Rs 228.

Tata Motors and Bajaj ended in the red at Rs 387 (down Rs 6) and Rs 892 (down Rs 3), respectively. Hero Honda and Maruti, however, were up a rupee each at Rs 476 and Rs 390, respectively.