Sensex ends down 58pts

The Sensex has ended (provisional) at 17,128 - down 58 points. The Nifty ended (provisional) down 15 points at 5,117.
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(Updated at 1424 hrs)

The Sensex has dropped sharply and extended losses. The index touched a low of 17,033 and is now down 133 points at 17,052.

The Nifty is down 38 points at 5,095.
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(Updated at 1341 hrs)

Markets today opened on a subdued note as Asian markets showed weak cues. After touching a low of 17,053, the Sensex regained strength and touched a high of 17,291 as IT major Infosys and market heavy-weight, Reliance, jumped.

The Sensex however has started slipping again and is now down 48 points at 17,137.

The Nifty is down 16 points at 5,115.

Auto index has dropped over 1% to 7,207. The bankex and oil & gas indices have moved down nearly 1% as well.

The market breadth is positive. Out of 2,752 stocks traded 1,449 have advanced while 1,204 declined on the BSE.

INDEX MOVERS...

Infosys jumped 1.6% to Rs 2,416 on bagging a contract from Walmart. Wipro has gained 2% at Rs 653. TCS is up 1% at Rs 697.

Bharti Airtel has added 2% to Rs 313. Hindalco, Reliance Infrastructure, Tata Motors and Hindustan Unilever have advanced over 1% each.

AND THE SHAKERS..

Auto stocks have displayed weakness in trades today. Maruti Suzuki has dropped 1% to Rs 1,620. M&M and Hero Honda are also in the red.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS...

SBI has topped the value chart on the BSE with a turnover of Rs 96.07 crore, followed by HDIL (Rs 85.41 crore), Tata Steel (Rs 77.42 crore), DLF (Rs 61.74 crore) and Unitech (Rs 61.30 crore).

Cals Refineries is leading the volume charts with trades of over Rs 25 million shares, followed by Reliance Media World (12.34 million), Unitech (7.06 million), Satyam (6.57 million) and Spicejet (6.29 million).