Sensex ends down 108pts; ONGC sheds 3%

Intra-day profit booking in noon deals saw the index pare gains and drop to a low of 16,697.

The index moved in a range of 388 points between 16,697 (low) and 17,086 (high) before finally settling with a loss of 108 points at 16,753.

The market breadth was marginally positive - out of 2,784 stocks traded, 1,410 advanced, 1,304 declined and 70 were unchanged today.

The NSE Nifty ended with a loss of 55 points at 4,958.

THE SHAKERS.....

ONGC plunged 3% at Rs 997, while Wipro and ACC tumbled 2.7% each to Rs 494 and Rs 683, respectively.

TCS, Reliance and Bharti Airtel declined around 2% each to Rs 906, Rs 2,501 and Rs 821, respectively.

Ranbaxy dropped 1.8% to Rs 485, and Grasim was down 1.6% to Rs 2,219.

HDFC, Infosys and DLF were the other major losers.

...AND THE MOVERS

Hindalco and Jaiprakash Associates gained 2.8% each to Rs 180 and Rs 253, respectively.

Reliance Infra surged 1.8% at Rs 1,381.

Satyam, ICICI Bank and Tata Steel advanced 1% each to Rs 496, Rs 889 and Rs 851, respectively.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

Aishwarya Telecom led the value chart with a turnover of Rs 759.28 crore followed by Cairn India (Rs 247.16 crore), Reliance Petroleum (Rs 216.72 crore), IFCI (Rs 212.81 crore) and Reliance Industries (Rs 190.77 crore).

Aishwarya Telecom, also, topped the volume chart with trades of around 7.26 crore shares followed by IFCI (3.50 crore), Ispat (1.47 crore), Reliance Petroleum (1.19 crore) and Reliance Natural Resources (1.17 crore).