IIP nos fail to boost Sensex; Ranbaxy, DLF slip

The Sensex today opened 36 points higher at 15,447 and soon touched the day's high of 15,600. However, around noon it dipped sharply into the negative zone as the April IIP numbers failed to boost investor's sentiments. The index thereafter was volatile and touched a low of 15,174, down 426 points from the day's high.

The index finally ended at 15,238, down 173 points.

The BSE Metal and Oil & Gas indices, however, gained over 1% each to 12,220 and 10,510, respectively.

The market breadth was extremely negative - out of 2,774 stocks traded, 2,020 declined while 706 advanced. The rest were unchanged.

INDEX SHAKERS..

Ranbaxy and DLF plunged 6% each to Rs 282 and Rs 369, respectively.

Reliance Communications dropped 4.5% to Rs 332. Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra and SBI slumped 3.5% each to Rs 357, Rs 786 and Rs 1,637, respectively.

Wipro, Bharti Airtel, HDFC, Larsen & toubro, BHEL, ACC, Grasim, NTPC were down 2-3% each.

Hindustan Unilever, Sun Pharma, Tata Power, TCS, HDFC Bank, Infosys, ICICI Bank, Reliance Infrastructure and Hindalco declined 1% each.

...AND MOVERS

Reliance gained 2.5% at Rs 2,357. Sterlite added 2% to Rs 718.

OTHER PROMINENT LOSERS...

Fortis Healthcare and Rei Agro slumped 8% each to Rs 105 and Rs 73, respectively. Lanco Infratech declined 7.5% to Rs 374.

Hindustan Construction Company, Max India, Andhra Bank, Tech Mahindra, Tulip Telecom, Aditya Birla Nuvo and GVK Power & Infrastructure dropped 6-7% each.

...AND OTHER GAINERS

JSW Steel soared 11% to Rs 707. Hindustan Zinc surged 8% to Rs 665. Sesa Goa rallied 5.5% after aquiring Dempo Group's Goa Mining Assets.

Jindal Steel, Cipla, Sintex Industries, Welspun Gujarat Stahl-Rohren, Union Bank and Cadila Healthcare added 3-5% each.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Sesa Goa topped the value chart with a total turnover of Rs 462.03 crore. It was followed by Reliance (Rs 266.74 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs 229.93 crore), Tata Steel (Rs 223.81 crore) and Suzlon (Rs 217.79 crore).

The volume chart was led by Unitech with trades of 22.71 million, followed by Sesa Goa (22.26 million), Ispat Industries (20.24 million), Suzlon (17.68 million) and IFCI (13.75 million).