Mirroring the weak trend in global markets, the Sensex opened with a negative gap of 55 points at 13,128. Further weakness in the opening trades saw the index drop to a low of 13,031 - down 152 points from the last close.
However, steady buying in Bajaj Auto and Infosys helped the index cut losses in late morning deals.
The index, thereafter, exhibited lacklustre movement and eventually ended with a loss of 69 points at 13,114.
The BSE IT index surged 1.5% to 4880. The Bankex and the FMCG index dropped 1.3% each to 6470 and 1788, respectively.
The market breadth was negative - out of 2,630 stocks traded, 1,466 declined, 1,090 advanced and 74 were unchanged today.
Movers & shakers
ONGC, Tata Steel, Ranbaxy, HDFC and Maruti plunged around 3% each to Rs 853, Rs 496, Rs 335, Rs 1,537 and Rs 760, respectively.
ITC dropped 2.7% to Rs 156. HDFC Bank and Hero Honda slipped around 2% each to Rs 958 and Rs 628, respectively.
Tata Motors, Hindalco and Cipla declined around 1.5% each to Rs Rs 710, Rs 140 and Rs 233, respectively.
SBI, Wipro, Reliance Energy, ICICI Bank, BHEL, Larsen & Toubro and Reliance Communications were down around 1% each to Rs 968, Rs 540, Rs 504, Rs 849, Rs 2,469, Rs 1,566 and Rs 409, respectively.
Bajaj Auto rallied 3% to Rs 2,349. Infosys surged 2.5% to Rs 2,044.
Grasim gained 1.7% at Rs 2,259. NTPC, Satyam and HLL were up around 1% each at Rs 160, Rs 446 and Rs 207, respectively.
Aviation action
Jet Airways soared over 3% to Rs 629 after the company signed a deal to acquire Air Sahara for a lumpsum payment of Rs 1,450 crore.
Deccan Aviation hit the 10% upper limit at Rs 103. SpiceJet, however, was down 2% at Rs 48.
Value & volume toppers
Debutant Orbit Corp topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 185 crore followed by Indiabulls Real (Rs 115.30 crore), Tata Steel (Rs 112.70 crore), MindTree (Rs 91.80 crore) and Indiabulls (Rs 90 crore).
IFCI led the volume chart with trades of around 2 crore shares followed by Orbit Corp (1.45 crore), Reliance Natural Res (53.53 lakh), Gremac Infra (40 lakh) and Idea (39.55 lakh).
