Sensex trims gains on profit-taking

Despite yesterday's sell-off, the Sensex opened with a positive gap of 121 points at 11,068, on the back of the positive cues from the overseas markets. The index, thereafter, firmed up and rallied to a high of 11,339 - up nearly 400 points from the previous close.

However, aggressive profit-taking in the last hour of trades, saw the index erase its entire gains and touch a low of 10,946. The Sensex however bounced back and eventually ended with a gain of 76 points at 11,023.

The Bankex, Realty and IT indexes rallied around 3% each to 5,526, 2,166 and 2,462, respectively. The Capital Goods index gained 2.5% at 7,842. The Metal index, however, slipped 1.7% to 6,791.

The market breadth was positive - out of 2,648 stocks traded, 1,365 advanced, 1,192 declined today.

INDEX MOVERS...

Larsen & Toubro and Infosys surged around 4% each to Rs 867 and Rs 1,393, respectively.

SBI and ICICI Bank rallied 3.5% each to Rs 1,306 and Rs 441, respectively.

Reliance Infrastructure and HDFC moved up over 2% each to Rs 659 and Rs 1,793, respectively.

Grasim and Bharti Airtel gained 1.5% each at Rs 1,635 and Rs 678, respectively.

ONGC and BHEL were up over 1% each at Rs 863 and Rs 1,646, respectively.
 
...AND THE SHAKERS

Hindalco plunged over 5% to Rs 55. Tata Steel shed 4% at Rs 258.

Sterlite and Tata Motors dropped around 3% each to Rs 388 and Rs 236, respectively.

Sun Pharma slipped 2.5% to Rs 1,206. ITC declined 2% to Rs 188.

DLF and Maruti dropped 1.7% each to Rs 231 and Rs 837, respectively.

NTPC was down 1.5% at Rs 193. Reliance and Jaiprakash Associates were also down 1% each.

OTHER PROMINENT GAINERS...

Unitech zoomed over 21% to Rs 53. Allahabad Bank, Jai Corp, Indian Overseas Bank, Thermax, Oracle, Indian Bank, Axis Bank, Power Finance, Andhra Bank, Corporation Bank, HCL Technologies, Federal Bank and Canara Bank surged 6-10% each.

...AND THE LOSERS

Indiabulls Realestate slumped 5% to Rs 129. JSW Steel, Tech Mahindra, RCF, M&M Financial, SAIL, Cipla, Tata Chemicals, GMDC, National Aluminium and Moser Baer declined 3-4% each.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Unitech topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 351 crore followed by Reliance Capital (Rs 331 crore), Reliance (Rs 278 crore), Tata Steel (Rs 193 crore) and SBI (Rs 190.50 crore).

Unitech also led the volume chart with trades of around 6.83 crore shares followed by Reliance Natural Resources (1.91 crore), Suzlon (1.66 crore), Cals Refineries (1.44 crore) and HDIL (1.23 crore).