Sensex sheds 110 points

The Sensex opened in positive territory on firm Asian markets and buying interest in cement, sugar and banking stocks. However the Sensex came off its high on substantial selling in heavyweights, CG and oil & gas stocks and slipped into red. After wiping out the early gains of 146 points, the market remained weak throughout the session. The Sensex slipped further in the afternoon on reports of a rise in the inflation rate and touched a low of 16,979, down 293 points from the day's high. There was buying at lower levels and the Sensex managed to pare some losses towards the close and end the session at 17,016, down 110 points. The Nifty shed 22 points and closed at 5,090.

Among the draggers of the index, Cipla shed 4.08% at Rs215.15, Tata Steel slumped 3.19% at Rs777.70, ICICI Bank declined 2.31% at Rs894.95, ACC lost 2.04% at Rs766.80, Maruti dipped 2.02% at Rs722.35, Wipro dropped 1.82% at Rs457.70, Hindalco slipped by 1.48% at Rs186.20, Infosys faltered 1.27% at Rs1,664.95 and Ambuja was down 1.26% at Rs113.35. However, Reliance Energy rose 4.95% at Rs1,426.10, Jaiprakash Associates raised 2.22% at Rs251.15, Reliance Communications moved up 1.34% at Rs584.80 and HDFC Bank was nearly up a per cent at Rs1,517.95.

All the 13 sectoral indices bar the four ended in red. The BSE CG index was the major loser and dropped 1.20% at 13,755 followed by the BSE Oil & Gas (down 1.08% at 11,430), the BSE IT index (down 0.90% at 4,063) and the BSE Metal index (down 0.71% at 15,624). The breadth of the market ended weak. Of the 2,469 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,374 stocks declined, 1,295 stocks advanced and 71 stocks ended unchanged.

CG stocks declined sharply. Siemens tumbled 9.87% at Rs580.65, Kisloskar Brothers dropped 5.53% at Rs287.20, Suzlon Energy lost 3.75% at Rs278.45, Elecon slipped by 2.77% at Rs170.35 and Kirloskar OIL shed 2.66% at Rs108. ABB, Crompton Greaves, L&T and Lakshmi Machine were down around 1% each.

Over 2.44 crore RNRL shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Nagarjuna Fertilisers & Chemicals (1.59 crore shares), IFCI (1.14 crore shares), Ispat Industries (1.07 crore shares) and IB Securities (1.07 crore shares).