Sensex slips below 12K, ends down 178pts

The Sensex today opened with a negative gap of 30 points, at 12,101. After moving sideways till noon, the index rebounded into the positive zone and touched a high of 12,272.

However, the Sensex could not hold gains and plunged into the negative zone owing to profit taking at higher levels. Significant weakness in realty, metal and banking stocks dragged the index into the negative zone. The selling pressure was so intense that the index tumbled to a low of 11,899, down 373 points from the day's high.

The Sensex finally ended at 11,953, down 178 points.

The Realty index shed 3.7% at 2,388. The Bankex declined 3% to 6,094. The Metal index declined 2.8% to 7,535.

The market breadth was marginally negative. Out of 2,612 stocks traded, 1,310  declined and 1,204 advanced.

INDEX SHAKERS...

Jaiprakash Associates plunged 6.5% to Rs 138. HDFC slumped 6% to Rs 1,749.

DLF and Tata Steel dropped 5.5% each to Rs 246 and RS 271, respectively. ICICI Bank and Sterlite shed 5% each.

Tata Motors, ITC, Wipro, Maruti Suzuki, TCS, ACC, BHEL, SBI, HDFC Bank, Hindustan Unilever, Infosys, Larsen & Toubro and Reliance Communications declined 1-3% each.

...AND THE MOVERS

NTPC gained 2% to Rs 194. Hindalco advanced 1.5% to Rs 63.

Tata Power and Reliance Infrastructure added 1% each to Rs 913 and Rs 801, respectively.

OTHER PROMINENT LOSERS...

IFCI and Crompton Greaves shed 7% each to Rs 27 and Rs 161. Kotak Bank slumped 6.5% to Rs 426.

Syndicate Bank, HDIL, GVK Power & Infrastructure, IDFC and Rei Agro were the other losers.

...AND THE GAINERS

Tulip Telecom zoomed 28% to Rs 609. Gujarat State Petronet soared 10% to Rs 47.

GMDC surged nearly 8% to Rs 58. Canara Bank, Cadila Healthcare, Indiabulls Financial Services, Godrej Industries, Bharat Forge and RECL advanced 4-5% each.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

Reliance Infrastructure topped the value chart with a turnover of over Rs 300 crore on the BSE. It is followed by ICICI Bank ( Rs 288.95 crore), Reliance (Rs 277.25 crore), Suzlon (Rs 254.18 crore) and Reliance Capital (Rs 244.63 crore).

Suzlon topped the volume chart with trades of around 33.87 million shares. Followed by Unitech (25.95 million), Reliance Natural Resources (24.96 million), IFCI (17.41million) and Ispat Industries (10.11 million).