Sensex ends down 110 points; Rel Energy gains 5%

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 126 points, and soon touched a high of 17,272. Profit-taking at higher levels forced the index pare gains and slip into the negative zone.

The index after gyrating between zones drifted to a low of 16,979 - down 293 points from the day's high - as the day progressed. The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 110 points at 17,016.

The market breadth was marginally negative - out of 2,740 stocks traded, 1,371 declined, 1,297 advanced and 72 were unchanged on Monday.

The NSE Nifty shed 22 points to close at 5,090.

Index Shakers . . .

Cipla plunged over 4% to Rs 215. Tata Steel dropped over 3% to Rs 778.

ICICI Bank shed 2.3% at Rs 895. ACC and Maruti slipped 2% each to Rs 767 and Rs 722, respectively.

Wipro declined 1.8% to Rs 458, and Hindalco shed 1.5% at Rs 186.

Infosys, Ambuja Cements and Reliance were down 1.3% each at Rs 1,665, Rs 113 and Rs 2,592, respectively.

. . . And the movers

Reliance Energy surged 5% to Rs 1,426.

Jaiprakash Associates rallied over 2% to Rs 251. Reliance Communications and HDFC Bank advanced 1.3% each to Rs 585 and Rs 1,518, respectively.

HDFC moved up 1% to Rs 2,720.

Value & Volume Toppers

Reliance Natural Resources topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 304.50 crore followed by Reliance Energy (Rs 257.65 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs 173.75 crore), Reliance (Rs 158.20 crore) and Orchid Chemicals (Rs 140.55 crore).

Reliance Natural Resources led the volume chart with trades of around 2.45 crore shares followed by Nagarjuna Fertlisers (1.60 crore), IFCI (1.14 crore), Ispat Industries (1.07 crore) and Indiabulls Securities (97.90 lakh).