Downmove continues; Infosys, Wipro buck trend

The Sensex opened 68 points lower at 9,042, but soon rebounded into the positive zone led by fresh buying in Infosys, post results. The index touched a high of 9,261 - up 219 points from the day's open. The index, however, could not hold gains as weakness in select index heavyweights saw the index swing between zones in mid-noon trades.

The index extended losses in late trades and slipped to a low of 8,993 - down 268 points from the day's high. The Sensex finally ended with a marginal loss of 39 points at 9,071. In the process, the index is now down over 12% (1,265 points) in the last four trading days.

The BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices dropped around 1.5% each at 3,006 and 3,442, respectively.

The BSE Oil & Gas index shed 1.8% at 5,489. The Bankex, Metal and Power indices dropped over 1% each to 5,126, 4,855 and 1,696, respectively. The IT index, however, surged 4.7% to 2,148.

The market breadth was fairly negative - out of 2,498 stocks traded, 1,561 declined, 850 advanced and the rest were unchanged.

INDEX MOVERS...

Infosys soared nearly 6.5% to Rs 1,230 after the company announced 33% rise in Q3 bottomline, backed by 35% surge in topline. The stock had opened in red, and slipped to a low of Rs 1,101 in opening trades. OVer 12 lakh shares changed hands at the counter on the BSE today.

Wipro witnessed a superb recovery today. The stock, which, shed nearly 12% in opening trades at Rs 200, shot back sharply into green to end with a gain of 6% at Rs 241 following the company's CEO clarification of no impact from the World Bank ban. The counter clocked a volume of nearly 40 lakh shares today.

Ranbaxy surged 4.5% to Rs 216, and Tata Power gained 3.5% at Rs 752.

ACC moved up 2.5% to Rs 508. TCS and ITC rallied around 2% each to Rs 523 and Rs 168, respectively.

SBI advanced 1.8% to Rs 1,177. Maruti and Tata Steel added 1.3% each to Rs 588 and Rs 203, respectively.

BHEL, Sterlite and Sun Pharma were up 1% each at Rs 1,359, Rs 263 and Rs 1,135, respectively.

...AND THE SHAKERS

Reliance Communications slumped 6.5% to Rs 168.

HDFC and Tata Motors plunged over 4% each to Rs 1,553 and Rs 155, respectively.

ONGC and Jaiprakash Associates shed around 3.5% each to Rs 630 and Rs 67, respectively.

Hindalco and Hindustan Unilever dropped 3% each to Rs 49 and Rs 255, respectively.

Bharti Airtel and ICICI Bank slipped nearly 3% each to Rs 607 and Rs 426, respectively.

Grasim declined 2.5% to Rs 1,325. Mahindra & Mahindra and Reliance were down 1.7% each to Rs 304 and Rs 1,081, respectively.

NTPC and HDFC Bank were down around 1.5% each at Rs 168 and Rs 989, respectively.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 244.60 crore followed by Rolta (Rs 217.40 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs 174 crore), Infosys (Rs 146.20 crore) and DLF (Rs 145.35 crore).

Satyam led the volume chart with trades of around 3.30 crore shares followed by Rolta (2.90 crore), Reliance Natural Resources (1.80 crore), Unitech (1.35 crore) and Suzlon (1.05 crore).