Sensex slips below 14500

The market cooled off after having recorded gains for the last two sessions. The Sensex opened on a positive note at 14619, up 48 points, tracking strong Asian indices. The Nifty registered its all-time high of 4363 on buying in metal and banking stocks. However, the market gave up its gains due to profit booking in heavyweights, information technology (IT), cement and automobile stocks. As the trading progressed the Sensex lost its strength and slipped into the negative territory to touch the day's low of 14466. The Sensex pared some losses towards the close but the sustained selling in index pivotal stocks kept the index in negative territory. The Sensex finally closed the session by shedding 75 points at 14496, while the Nifty ended the session down 30 points at 4267.

The broader market remained weak. Of the 2,654 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,388 stocks declined, 1,182 stocks advanced and 84 stocks ended unchanged. Barring the BSE Metal index, the BSE Bankex and the BSE FMCG index, the other sectoral indices ended in negative territory. The BSE Auto index dropped 1.63% at 4948, the BSE IT index shed 1.26% at 4847 and the BSE CG index was down 1.24% at 11,103.

Among the major losers, Tata Motors dropped 4.78% at Rs711, Grasim slumped 3.19% at Rs2,440, BHEL shed 3.01% at Rs1,372, Cipla lost 2.99% at Rs218, HLL declined 2.39% at Rs196 and Satyam Computer slipped by nearly 2.33% at Rs467. However, Hindalco notched up gains of 3.97% at Rs147, SBI rose 2.07% at Rs1,407, ITC added 2.04% at Rs165, NTPC advanced 1.11% at Rs160 and HDFC Bank moved up by 1.05% at Rs1,165.

Auto stocks came under sharp selling pressure. Clutch Auto tumbled by 6.70% at Rs144, Goodyear slipped 4.73% at Rs197, TVS Motors slumped 4.12% at Rs66, Amar Raja Battries fell 3.65% at Rs381, Escorts lost 3.57% at Rs120, Bharat Forge declined 3.33% at Rs324, Cummins shed 3.03% at Rs304 and Tube Investments was down 2.80% at Rs78.

Over 1.22 crore Reliance Natural Resources shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Asahi Songwon Colors (62.93 lakh shares), Hindalco (61.48 lakh shares), Nagarjuna Fertilizer (54.80 lakh shares) and Mangalore Chemicals & Fertilizers (44.72 lakh shares).

Value-wise Reliance Capital registered a turnover of Rs143 crore on the BSE followed by MIC Electric (Rs139 crore), Indiabulls Real Estate (Rs103 crore), SBI (Rs97 crore) and Hindalco (Rs92 crore).