Sensex sheds 143 points

After registering gains of 228 points in the last two sessions, the market slipped on profit taking in early trades and lingered in negative territory throughout the trading session. The Sensex faltered after touching a new intra-day high of 14060 in early trades. Hectic selling in heavyweight, FMCG, metal, information technology and banking stocks in noon trades dragged the index below the 13900 mark to the day's low of 13850. The Sensex ended the session with losses of 143 points at 13872, while the Nifty shed 35 points to close at 3989.

Dragging down the market, ITC dropped 3.68% at Rs169, Hero Honda tumbled 2.98% at Rs755, Hindalco shed 2.64% at Rs175, Satyam Computers slipped 2.56% at Rs502, Wipro shed 2.34% at Rs606, Reliance Communication lost 1.70% at Rs465 and SBI declined 1.69% at Rs1,244. However, select blue chip counters managed to clock some gains. Dr Reddy’s gained 2.20% at Rs826 on impressive third quarter numbers. L&T was up 1.15% at Rs1,493, Reliance Energy gained 0.91% at Rs530, Tata Motors added 0.84% at Rs947, Ranbaxy advanced 0.29% at Rs413 and ONGC was marginally up 0.28% at Rs875.

Except the BSE CD index, the BSE CG index, the BSE HC index and the BSE Oil & Gas index, the remaining sectoral indices ended in the red. The BSE FMCG index dropped 2.08% at 1887 while the other indices were down around 1% each. However, the BSE CD index advanced 0.34% at 3679. The breadth of the market was firm. Of the 2,654 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,538 stocks advanced, 1,062 stocks declined and 54 stocks ended unchanged.

Among the non-Sensex stocks Sterlite Biotech lost 4.16% at Rs191, Maharashtra Seamless dropped 3.24% at Rs476, Canara Bank lost 3.24% at Rs278, Corporation Bank dipped 2.97% at Rs348, Jindal Stainless was down 2.96% at Rs120, Hindustan Zinc shed 2.95% at Rs785, MTNL tumbled 2.76% at Rs146, Parsvnath slumped 2.61% at Rs456 and Birla Corporation was down 2.54% at Rs330.

Over 26.87 lakh ITC shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Polaris (22.09 lakh shares), Satyam Computers (20.59 lakh shares), IndusInd Bank (20.22 lakh shares) and SAIL (13.28 lakh shares).

Value-wise Reliance Industries registered a turnover of Rs107.71 crore on the BSE followed by Satyam Computers (Rs105.44 crore), HDFC (Rs99.29 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs70.25 crore) and Glaxo (Rs64.28 crore).