Market up but smallcaps slaughtered

The Sensex opened with a huge positive gap of 157 points at 20,970, and rallied past the 21,000-mark to a fresh all-time high of 21,078.

Profit-taking at higher levels saw the index drop to a low of 20,697 - down 381 points from the peak. Fresh buying towards the end saw the index finish with a gain of 60 points at 20,873.

The Smallcap Index plunged 3.3% (459 points) to 13,516, and the Midcap Index tumbled 2.8% (285 points) to 9817.

The market breadth was extremely negative - out of 2,922 stocks traded, 2,369 declined, 541 advanced and 12 were unchanged today.

INDEX MOVERS...

Bharti Airtel zoomed 4% to Rs 974. HDFC Bank soared 3.6% to Rs 1,716.

Satyam, SBI and Mahindra & Mahindra surged around 2.5% each to Rs 424, Rs 2,465 and Rs 830, respectively.

Reliance Communications and ONGC rallied nearly 2% each to Rs 804 and Rs 1,322, respectively.

TCS and Infosys advanced 1.5% each to Rs 991 and Rs 1,662, respectively.

DLF and Larsen & Toubro gained over 1% each at Rs 1,151 and Rs 4,333, respectively.

Reliance and Wipro were also up around 1% each at Rs 3,050 and Rs 488, respectively.

...AND SHAKERS

Hindalco and Tata Steel plunged 3.7% each to Rs 209 and Rs 892, respectively.

Grasim shed 3.3% to Rs 3,401. Maruti slipped 2.4% to Rs 940.

ICICI Bank and Reliance Energy tumbled around 2% each to Rs 1,333 and Rs 2,536, respectively.

ACC, Tata Motors and HDFC dropped around 1.5% each to Rs 985, Rs 774 and Rs 3,064, respectively.

NTPC and Cipla declined 1.3% each to Rs 265 and Rs 209, respectively. Hindustan Unilever was down over 1% at Rs 235.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

Reliance Natural Resources topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 1,020.35 crore followed by Reliance Petroleum (Rs 600 crore), Reliance Communications (Rs 334.30 crore), Reliance (Rs 276.50 crore) and Himachal Futuristic (Rs 273.80 crore).

Himachal Futuristic led the volume chart with trades of around 4.59 crore followed by Reliance Natural Resources (4.23 crore), Arvind Remedies (3.22 crore), Reliance Petroleum (2.39 crore) and Alka India (2.35 crore).