Sensex ends down 44 points at 10,980

The Sensex opened marginally (42 points) higher at 11,065 amid mixed cues from the overseas markets. After a brief slippage, the index bounced back into green and rallied to a high of 11,210, backed by smart gains in metal and realty stocks.

The index thereafter displayed some volatility albiet a positive bias till mid-noon trades.

Profit-taking at higher levels, mainly banking and FMCG stocks, dragged the index back into the negative zone. The selling pressure was so intense that the index dropped to a low of 10,863 - down 347 points from the day's high.

The Sensex recovered partially towards the close, and finally ended with a marginal loss of 44 points at 10,980.

The Nifty ended down 7 points at  3,377. The mid-cap and Small-cap indexes rallied around 1.5% each to 3,529 and 4,011, respectively.

The BSE Metal index surged 2.5% to 6,962. The Bankex, however, slipped 1% to 5,473.

The market breadth was positive - out of 2,615 stocks traded, 1.,496 advanced, 1,033 declined and 86 were unchanged today.

Index Movers…

Reliance Infrastructure soared nearly 6% to Rs 697. Jaiprakash Associates surged 5% to Rs 117.

Tata Motors rallied over 4% to Rs 246. Sterlite gained nearly 3% at Rs 399.

Larsen & Toubro advanced 2% to Rs 884, and Tata Steel added 1.8% to Rs 263.

Bharti Airtel and ACC were the other major gainers.

…And the shakers

ICICI Bank and NTPC plunged around 3.5% each to Rs 427 and Rs 187, respectively.

Hindalco, Grasim and Tata Power shed around 2.5% each at Rs 54, Rs 1,595 and Rs 859, respectively.

TCS, HDFC, ITC and Sun Pharma slipped around 2% each to Rs 560, Rs 1,754, Rs 184 and Rs 1,183, respectively.

Other prominent gainers…

Hindustan Construction zoomed 10% to Rs 61. GVK Power and GMR Infrastructure surged around 9.5% each. Educomp Solutions, GMDC, Jindal Steel, ABB, Siemens, Gujarat NRE Coke, Glenmark Pharma, RCF, IDFC, JP Hydropower, HCL Technologies, Rolta and Godrej Industries gained 6-9% each.

...And the losers

Punj Lloyd slumped nearly 6% to Rs 113. Everest Kanto, Rei Agro, Bharat Electronics, National Aluminium, Shipping Corporation, Oracle Financials, Bharat Forge, M&M Financial Services, Cipla and G E Shipping declined 3-5% each.

Value & volume toppers

Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 247.75 crore followed by Reliance Capital (Rs 244.20 crore), Reliance Infrastructure (Rs 236 crore), Unitech (Rs 191 crore) and ICICI Bank (Rs 175.66 crore).

Unitech led the volume chart with trades of around 3.49 crore shares followed by Cals Refineries (1.71 crore), IFCI (1.50 crore), Reliance Natural Resouces (1.48 crore) and Satyam (1.12 crore).