Sensex in red

The Sensex, began somewhat 2064 with a bang, opened with a positive gap of 224 points at 19,283, and soon touched a high of 19,330. The index, however, could not hold gains for long as profit taking at higher levels saw the index slip into red.

The index tumbled to a low of 18,737 - down 546 points from the day's high. The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 151 points at 18,908 on this special trading day.

The BSE Bankex dropped 1.4% to 10,212. The IT and Metal indices slipped 1% each to 4253 and 16,864, respectively.

ACC plunged 3.5% to Rs 1,020. ICICI Bank and Wipro slipped over 2% each to Rs 1,143 and Rs 460, respectively.

Satyam shed 1.8% at Rs 427. Bharti Airtel , HDFC and Tata Motors [ dropped 1.5% each to Rs 871, Rs 2,523 and Rs 696, respectively.

HDFC Bank, Bajaj Auto and Tata Steel declined 1.3% each to Rs 1,538, Rs 2,398 and Rs 834, respectively.

Grasim , Mahindra & Mahindra and SBI were down 1% each at Rs 3,503, Rs 744 and Rs 2,162, respectively.

The market breadth, however, was fairly positive - out of 2,557 stocks traded, 1,792 advanced, 701 declined and 64 were unchanged on Friday.