Sensex ends down 95pts, Rel Energy gains 6%

The Sensex opened 36 points lower at 15,755, but aggressive buying in Reliance, TCS and Larsen & Toubro saw the index rally to a high of 15,954 - up almost 200 points from the day's open - in noon deals.

The index, however, could not hold gains as weakness in banking and telecom stocks dragged it into negative zone in late noon trades. The index slipped to 15,655 - down almost 300 points from the day's high. The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 95 points at 15,695.

The market breadth was fairly positive - out of 2,717 stocks traded, 1,686 advanced, 956 declined and 75 were unchanged today.

The NSE Nifty dropped 14 points to close at 4,733.

INDEX SHAKERS...

ICICI Bank and Ranbaxy dropped over 4% each to Rs 801 and Rs 451, respectively. HDFC Bank declined 3.7% to Rs 1,326.

Jaiprakash Associates was down 3% at Rs 213. Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever and Reliance Communications slipped around 2.5% each to Rs 799, Rs 238 and Rs 484, respectively.

SBI and Infosys dropped nearly 2% each to Rs 1,662 and Rs 1,453, respectively.

DLF and Cipla declined over 1.5% each to Rs 600 and Rs 214, respectively.

Tata Motors, Wipro and HDFC were down over 1% each at Rs 624, Rs 407 and Rs 2,381, respectively.

...AND MOVERS

Reliance Energy surged 6.5% to Rs 1,253. TCS rallied 2.8% to Rs 901, and Reliance moved up over 2% to Rs 2,468.

Larsen & Toubro and Ambuja Cements gained around 1.5% each at Rs 2,678 and Rs 122, respectively.

Tata Steel was up 1% at Rs 686.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 375 crore followd by Reliance Petroleum (Rs 360.80 crore), Orchid Chemicals (Rs 224 crore), Reliance Energy (Rs 206.40 crore) and Reliance Capital (Rs 205.60 crore).

Reliance Petroleum led the volume chart with trades of around 2.04 crore shares followed by Sita Shree Foods (1.91 crore), Reliance Natural Resources (1.65 crore), Orchid Chemicals (98.72 lakh) and IFCI (95.92 lakh).