Sensex slips amid lacklustre trades

The Sensex opened on a positive note at 13733. However it could not hold on to the gains and drifted into negative territory. The market appeared extremely bearish as the trading session progressed. Hectic selling in heavyweight, information technology, metal and consumer durables stocks in the afternoon dragged the index to the day's low of 13581. The Sensex ended the session with losses of 89 points at 13607, while the Nifty shed 28 points to close at 3985.

The breadth of the market was weak. Of the 2,631 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,463 stocks declined, 1,085 stocks advanced and 83 stocks ended unchanged. All the sectoral indices closed on a weak note. The BSE IT Index declined 2.48% followed by the BSE Teck Index (down 1.80%), the BSE Metal Index (down 1.29%) and the BSE CD Index (down 1.15%).

Several index heavyweights ended with losses. Satyam Computers led the slump and tumbled 4.89% at Rs456. Tata Motors dropped 2.64% at Rs731, TCS slumped 2.39% at Rs1,250, Cipla shed 2.34% at Rs236, Infosys lost 2.19% at Rs2,082, Wipro declined 2.11% at Rs574, Maruti slipped 2.02% at Rs762 and ITC was down 1.61% at Rs156. Select counters, however, logged steady gains. Bajaj Auto rose 2.71% at Rs2,548, ACC added 2.56% at Rs807, Gujarat Ambuja gained 1.34% at Rs114 and Reliance Industries was up 1.10% at Rs1,476.

Over 89 lakh ICRA shares changed hands on the BSE followed by IFCI (87.30 lakh shares), GV Films (84.28 lakh shares), Bellary (82.34 lakh shares) and Tata Teleservices (76.83 lakh shares).

Value-wise Reliance Industries clocked a turnover of Rs154 crore on the BSE followed by Tata Steel (Rs116 crore), TCS (Rs85 crore), Infosys (Rs75.83 crore) and Satyam Computers (Rs58.99 crore).