Quiet Day:Sensex down 16pts, NTPC up 3%

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 50 points at 15,067. After touching a high of 15,070, the index slipped marginally and displayed lacklustre movement for the major part of the trading session today.

The index dropped to a low of 14,965 - down 105 points from the day's high. The index, however, pulled back and ended with a marginal loss of 16 points at 15,001.

The BSE Realty index was up over 1% at 7391.

The market breadth was fairly positive - out of 2,764 stocks traded, 1,573 advanced, 1,104 declined and 87 were unchanged today.

INDEX MOVERS...

NTPC surged 3% to Rs 173.

ONGC and HDFC Bank gained over 1% each at Rs 854 and Rs 1,150, respectively. Hindalco also advanced 1% to Rs 154.

...AND THE SHAKERS

ACC, HDFC and Grasim dropped around 2% each to Rs 990, Rs 1,941 and Rs 2,879, respectively.

Hindustan Unilever and Mahindra & Mahindra declined around 1.7% each to Rs 200 and Rs 679, respectively.

BHEL slipped over 1% to Rs 1,687. Maruti, Reliance Communications and Larsen & Toubro were the other prominent losers today.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Everonn Systems topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 381 crore followed by debutant Omnitech (150.50 crore), Orbit Corporation (Rs 138.80 crore), SBI (Rs 97.90 crore) and IDBI (Rs 96.90 crore).

Nagarjuna Fertilisers led the volume chart with trades of around 1.93 crore shares followed by IKF Technologies (1.57 crore), IFCI (1.25 crore), Reliance Natural (1.03 crore) and Omnitech (90 lakh).