Sensex sheds 84 points

The weakness in the Asian markets weighed on the domestic indices, with the Sensex shedding 84 points and slipping below the 13000 mark on substantial selling pressure. After resuming 19 points above its previous close at 13176, the Sensex fell and languished in negative territory for a major portion of the trading session. The index slipped deeper into the red in the afternoon to touch the day's low of 12950. The Sensex finally ended the session with losses of 84 points at 13073, while the Nifty tumbled 21 points to close at 3777.

The market breadth was weak. Of the 2,594 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,704 stocks declined, 837 stocks advanced and 53 stocks ended unchanged. Barring the BSE IT index and the BSE Bankex, the remaining sectoral indices lost ground. The BSE CD index dropped 3.66% at 3198, the BSE Oil & Gas index shed 2% at 6141 and the BSE Auto index was down 1.73% at 5255.

Dragging down the market, Hero Honda shed 4.07% at Rs713, Bajaj Auto dropped 3.35% at Rs2,631, RIL lost 2.97% at Rs1,252 and HDFC tumbled 2.49% at Rs1,521. Reliance Communication, Tata Motors, ITC, Dr Reddy's, NTPC and BHEL were down by around 2% each. Hindalco, L&T, Maruti, Tata Steel, Satyam, Grasim, ACC, Ranbaxy, HLL, ONGC and Bharti Airtel also ended the day in the red. However, SBI rose 2.08% at Rs1,128, ICICI Bank jumped 1.77% at Rs783, Infosys added 1.12% at Rs2,126, Wipro gained 0.98% at Rs534 and REL moved up by 0.64% at Rs510. Cipla, Gujarat Ambuja Cements and TCS closed with marginal gains.

Consumer durables stocks came under considerable selling pressure. Videocon Industries shed 4.78% at Rs431, Titan Industries fell 3.77% at Rs741, Lloyd Electric declined 2.97% at Rs128, Goldiam International shed 2.07% at 121 and Rajesh Exports was down Rs2.02% at Rs228.

Over 72.10 lakh IFCI shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Shyam Telecom (68.33 lakh shares), Development Credit Bank (53.39 lakh shares), Morepen Laboratories (38.35 lakh shares) and HFCL (34.12 lakh shares).

Reliance Industries was the most actively traded counter on the BSE and clocked a turnover of Rs281.74 crore followed by Hindustan Zinc (Rs163.74 crore), Jaiprakash Associates (Rs146.89 crore), Shyam Telecom (Rs113.06 crore) and SBI (Rs105.76 crore).