Sensex trades flat at 10,896 pts

Mumbai, Mar 22 (UNI) The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensitive Index (Sensex) traded flat this afternoon with a loss of nine points at 10,896 as compared to the last close of 10,905 points.

Earlier in the morning Sensex opened five points lower at 10,900 as compared to the last close of 10,905 points.

The benchmark index swung around 100 points touching a high of 10,935 and a low of 10,840 points in the day's trade so far.

Yesterday, Sensex crossed the 11,000 mark first time ever in the morning trade, touching 11,017 points.

Sensex was trading lower on the back of the US markets closing lower, while nearer home the Japanese Nikkei ended 0.95 per cent up.

The crude oil prices also jumped up by more than two US dollar to USD 62.46 per barrel in the New York Mercantile Exchange this morning, as compared to yesterday's price of just above USD 60 per barrel.

In contrast, BSE Health Care index was up by 1.24 per cent this afternoon, while most of the other sectoral indices were in the red including the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices.

Leading drug companies that gained this afternoon - Dr Reddy's Lab was up by 5.99 per cent, Cadila Healthcare up by 1.47 per cent, Cipla was up by 1.77 per cent, Aurobindo Pharma was marginally up by 0.55 per cent, Nicholas Piramal was up by 1.43 per cent and Matrix Laboratories up by 1.55 per cent.

Ranbaxy was down by 0.28 per cent losing early morning gains.

The top gainers on the 30 share Sensex were Dr Reddy's Lab, Cipla, Hindustan Lever, BHEL, Tata Steel, Satyam Computers, Tata Power, HDFC Bank, Wipro and Tata Motors.

The top losers on the Sensex were Hero Honda, Larsen&Toubro, Hindalco, ACC, Maruti, ICICI Bank, TCS, Reliance Energy, NTPC and Infosys.

The National Stock Exchange 50 share S&P CNX Nifty index traded 12 points down at 3,250 points as compared to the last close of 3,262 points. Earlier, the Nifty opened flat at 3,263 as compared to the last close of 3,262 points.

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