Sensex down 178pts; Reliance, ICICI, Infosys weak

In the pre sun-outage session, the Sensex was down 178 points at 12,877.

Sterlite has slumped 7.3% to Rs 398, and Tata Steel has plunged 5.5% to Rs 415.

Reliance, ICICI Bank and Infosys have tumbled around 3.5% each to Rs 1,840, Rs 532 and Rs 1,405, respectively.

Tata Motors, Reliance Communications and Satyam have shed around 3% each at Rs 329, Rs 334 and Rs 310, respectively.

Bharti Airtel has slipped over 2% to Rs 773. TCS has dropped 1.6% to Rs 660.

DLF, Maruti, Tata Power and Larsen & Toubro are down over 1% each at Rs 341, Rs 689, Rs 935 and Rs 1,203, respectively.

Ranbaxy has soared 8.7% to Rs 274. Mahindra & Mahindra and ITC have rallied over 2% each to Rs 519 and Rs 197, respectively.

Hindustan Unilever and SBI have advanced around 1.5% each to Rs 258 and Rs 1,521, respectively. BHEL is up over 1% at Rs 1,609.

The market breadth is negative - out of 2,094 stocks traded so far, 1,175 have declined, 866 have advanced and the rest are unchanged.