Sensex ends down 270pts, ITC gains 4%

The Sensex opened with a huge positive gap of 122 points at 20,498, which turned out to be the high for the day.

A heavy bout of selling towards the close saw the index tumble to a low of 20,066 - an intra-day swing of 432 points.

The Sensex finally closed with a huge loss of 271 points (1.3%) at 20,104.

The BSE FMCG index gained nearly 2% (42 points) at 2232. The BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices also finished with gains at 9376 and 12,007, respectively.

The market breadth was positive - out of 2,928 scrips traded today, 1,843 logged gains and 1,059 declined.

INDEX LOSERS....

Bharti dropped over 6% (Rs 66) to Rs 988. ICICI Bank declined nearly 4% (Rs 48) to Rs 1,242.

Maruti slipped 3.5% (Rs 37) to Rs 1,038. Reliance was down nearly 2% (Rs 54) at Rs 2,833.

ONGC, Satyam, NTPC and BHEL also finished on a weak note today.

....AND GAINERS

ITC closed with a gain of over 4% at Rs 197. Tata Steel moved up 3% to Rs 889.

Cipla, Hindalco, Bajaj and HDFC also closed with gains today.

KOLTE PATIL ENDS DAY ONE WITH 25% GAIN

Kolte Patil was listed at a premium of 52% at Rs 220 as against the IPO price of Rs 145. The stock hit a high of 224 and low of Rs 175 before closing with a gain of 25% (Rs 36) at Rs 181.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

Ispat was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 365 crore followed by IFCI (Rs 275 crore), Mundra Port (Rs 268 crore), Lanco (Rs 199 crore) and Kolte Patil (Rs 198 crore).