Sensex drops 43 pts, Tata Power up 5%

The Sensex opened higher at 7,806 (up nine points over its yesterday's close) and soon touched a high of 7,818 on extended buying support in select counters.

Although selling pressure dragged the markets lower in early trades, it displayed a range-bound trend thereafter with a mixed bias for better part of the trading session.

The market witnessed a steep fall towards the closing hours as sharp correction in banking, tech and select heavyweights dragged the index to an intra-day low of 7,739 - down 79 points from the day's high.

The Sensex finally ended 43 points down at 7,754.

ICICI Bank tumbled 2.60% (Rs 13) to Rs 500, while HDFC Bank declined 1.33% (Rs 9) to Rs 675. SBI also ended lower at Rs 805.

Satyam shed 3% (Rs 17) to Rs 523. Infosys, TCS and Wipro were down a per cent each at Rs 2,291 (down Rs 21), Rs 1,285 (down Rs 9) and Rs 723 (down Rs 7), respectively.

ONGC, Reliance and HLL ended marginally weak at Rs 951 (down Rs 5), Rs 726 (down Rs 3) and Rs 165 (down Rs 2), respectively. Reliance Energy, however, gained 1.33% (Rs 8) to Rs 647.

Bajaj dropped 3.33% (Rs 51) to Rs 1,482, and Hero Honda lost 2.62% (Rs 17) to Rs 614. Tata Motors and Maruti, however, ended marginally higher at Rs 503 and Rs 501, respectively.

Tata Power scaled up nearly 5% (Rs 20) to Rs 429. Bharti pared some gains on profit-taking, but still ended 3.12% higher (Rs 9) at Rs 293. BHEL, after a mixed outing, advanced 2% (Rs 22) to Rs 1,099.

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