Auto, banks drag Sensex

Markets today opened on a subdued note owing to weak Asian cues. After trading in red in morning trades, the Sensex regained strength and touched a high of 17,292 as IT major Infosys and market heavy-weight, Reliance, jumped.

The Sensex however slipped again towards the end of the day and dropped 259 points from its high to a low of 17,033. Weak data from US dampened investor sentiments. Even though the Sensex tried to recover, it managed to end at 17,102 - down 84 points.

The Nifty ended down 23 points at 5,109.

The BSE small-cap index managed to outperform the broader markets. The index rose 0.38% to 7,852.

Weakness was seen in auto and banking stocks. The BSE auto index dropped 1.5% to 7,186 while the bankex slipped 1% to 10,245. However, the healthcare index bucked the trend and added 1.2% to 5,039.

The market breadth was neutral. Out of 2,864 stocks traded, 1,426 declined while 1,378 advanced.

INDEX SHAKERS...

Auto stocks were the laggards today. Maruti Suzuki slumped 2.5% to Rs 1,595. Mahindra & Mahindra shed 2% at Rs 1,045. Hero Honda dropped 1.6% to Rs 1,666.

ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and SBI declined around 1.5% each.

ONGC slipped 1.3% to Rs 1,181. Tata Steel and DLF were also down. Market heavyweight, Reliance, ended down 1% at Rs 1,089.

...AND THE MOVER

Bharti Airtel added 1% to Rs 310.

Among other stocks NDTV surged 7.5% to Rs 151 on reports of Turner International's plans of acquiring a controlling stake in NDTV Imagine. Meanwhile, Eicher Motors dropped 3% as Mitsubishi exited the venture.

Reliance Media World saw a spectacular debut today. The stock finally ended at Rs 138 after touching a low of Rs 59.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS...

Reliance Media World shone in the value chart with a turnover of Rs 216.24 crore on the BSE. It was followed by SBI (Rs 148.31 crore), HDIL (Rs 126.83 crore), Tata Steel (Rs 121.70 crore) and Unitech (Rs 98.16 crore).

The volume chart was led by Cals refineries with trades of over 25 million shares, followed by Reliance Media World (16.54 million), Unitech (11.12 million), Suzlon (10.76 million) and Satyam (9.39 million).