Sensex ends up marginally; L&T, BHEL drop

The Sensex opened 46 points higher at 9,023, and touched a high of 9,087 in morning trades. The index, however, could not hold gains as profit-taking in capital goods, fmcg and select banking stocks dragged the index into red.

The index touched a low of 8,900 - down 187 points from the day's high. Realty and IT stocks, however, continued to attract buying interest. The Sensex rebounded into green, and finally ended with a marginal gain of 25 points at 9,002.

The BSE Realty index gained 2.5% at 1,623, and the IT index advanced 1.5% to 2,219. The Capital Goods index, however, dropped 2.6% to 5,925.

The market breadth was marginally positive - out of 2,561 stocks traded, 1,354 advanced, 1,105 declined and 102 were unchanged today.

INDEX MOVERS...

Sterlite soared over 4% to Rs 314. HDFC and Sun Pharma surged around 2.5% each to Rs 1,388 and Rs 1,020, respectively.

Maruti and TCS rallied 1.7% each to Rs 730 and Rs 515, respectively.

NTPC and Infosys gained 1.5% each at Rs 178 and Rs 1,296, respectively.

Jaiprakash Associates advanced 1.3% to Rs 80. DLF, Reliance and ONGC were up 1% each at Rs 173, Rs 1,345 and Rs 730, respectively.

...AND THE SHAKERS

Larsen & Toubro slumped over 4% to Rs 610. BHEL plunged over 3% to Rs 1,413.

Tata Motors tumbled nearly 3% to Rs 172. Reliance Communications and Mahindra & Mahindra shed 2% each at Rs 157 and Rs 355, respectively.

Tata Steel slipped 1.8% to Rs 173, and HDFC Bank declined 1.5% to Rs 830.

Hindustan Unilever was down 1% at Rs 230.

OTHER PROMINENT GAINERS...

Akruti City zoomed nearly 11% to Rs 2,228. Godrej Consumers soared nearly 8% to Rs 121. Tulip Telecom, GMR Infrastructure, GMDC, Oracle Finacle, Godrej Industries, Kotak Bank, Indian Hotels, Axis Bank, Indiabulls, PTC India and Aban Offshore gained 4-7% each.

...AND THE LOSERS

Jai Corp plunged 5.7% to Rs 77. Power Finance, Marico, Sintex, Mundra Port, United Spirits and Indian Bank slipped 3-4% each.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Akruti City topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 994 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 192.40 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 170 crore), Educomp Solutions (Rs 144.15 crore) and HDFC (Rs 113.10 crore).

Cals Refineires led the volume chart with trades of over two crore shares followed by Suzlon (96.89 lakh), Unitech (84.66 lakh), Firstsource (81.46 lakh) and NIIT (72 lakh).