Sensex ends down 38pts; Hindalco soars 6%

The Sensex opened with a negative gap of 102 points at 13,862, but soon rebounded into the positive zone and touched a high of 14,047.

However, selling pressure at higher levels forced the index slip into the negative zone. The index dropped to a low of 13,764 - down 283 points from the day's high. The Sensex recovered some ground and finally settled with a marginaly loss of 38 points at 13,926.

The market breadth was posititve - out of 2,696 stocks traded, 1,445 advanced, 1,181 declined and 70 were unchanged today.

The NSE Nifty ended nearly flat at 4,162 - up five points.

INDEX MOVERS...

Hindalco soared 5.5% to Rs 154. Tata Steel surged over 3% to Rs 699.

ACC rallied over 3% to Rs 553, and Ambuja Cements gained 2.5% at Rs 79.

Reliance Infrastructure moved up 2.3% to Rs 855. DLF advanced 1.8% to Rs 458.

HDFC, Hindustan Unilever and Reliance Communications were up around 1% each at Rs 2,117, Rs 218 and Rs 445, respectively.

...AND THE SHAKERS

Maruti shed 3.5% at Rs 568. ITC plunged 2.3% to Rs 179.

Reliance slipped 1.7% to Rs 2,044. Jaiprakash Associates and Tata Motors declined 1.3% each to Rs 171 and Rs 399, respectively.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Reliance Capital topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 281 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 211.70 crore), Reliance Infrastructure (Rs 191.70 crore), DLF (Rs 185 crore) and Mundra Port (Rs 160.50 crore).

IFCI led the volume chart with trades of around 1.91 crore shares followed by Reliance Natural Resources (1.70 crore), Ispat Industries (1.68 crore), Reliance Petroleum (92.25 lakh) and First Win (80.70 lakh).