Sensex loses early gains after touching new high of 10,884

Mumbai, Mar 13 (UNI) Despite a strong opening in the morning, the benchmark index on the BSE lost the early gains in the afternoon but was still trading at a new all-time high of 10,828 at 1406 hrs, gaining 63 points from the last close.

There was still a strong rally in the technology counters as the BSE infotech indices of IT and Teck were up by 1.71 per cent and 1.69 per cent, respectively.

TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Satyam Computers and Bharti Tele were showing gains between 3.62 per cent to 1.27 per cent at 1406 hrs.

However, the BSE indices of automobile, consumer durables, banks and FMCG companies were in the red.

Earlier in the morning, the sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) opened 30 points up at 10,795, as compared to the last close of 10,765 on Friday.

The benchmark index crossed the 10,800 mark in the first half-an-hour of trading and touched a high of 10,884, with a gain of 119 points.

The strong rally in the midcap and smallcap shares also boosted the index to an all-time high. However, both the indices lost early gains in the afternoon, and were up only by 0.74 and 0.38 per cent, respectively.

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) key index S&P CNX Nifty opened flat at 3,184, as compared to the last close of 3,183 points.

The 50-share Nifty index crossed the 3,200 mark today and touched a high of 3,221 during the first hour of trading. It was trading at 3,203 with a gain of 20 points at 1359 hrs.

The top ten gainers on the 30 share BSE Sensex were - TCS, Wipro, Satyam Computers, Bharti Tele, Larsen&Toubro, ONGC, Infosys, Hindalco and SBI.

The losers were - Hero Honda, Gujarat Ambuja Cements, ICICI Bank, HDFC, ITC Ltd, Tata Motors, Grasim Industries and Maruti Udyog.

UNI RRP GK AG1440