Sensex slips 27 pts to 11,280 after profit-booking

Mumbai, Mar 31: Profit booking towards the close of an eventful week led to 27 points fall on the 30-share Sensitive Index of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) closing at 11,279.96.

Sensex swung 125 points between an all-time high of 11,356.95 and low of 11,231 in the intra-day trade.

Earlier in the morning, Sensex opened with a gap of 18 points at 11,325, as compared to the last close of 11,307.

In a historic rally, Sensex touched a new high of 11,356.95 points, surpassing the earlier high of 11,338.

Despite a lower closing, the midcap stokcs were in limelight as the BSE midcap index closed 1.6 per cent up.

Leading midcap scrips like Arvind Mills, Titan and Jaiprakash Hydro closed with gains.

The BSE smallcap index was also up by 1.2 per cent.

The Tata pack fared well too, led by Tata Steel which was the top gainer on the Sensex. Other gainers were - Tata Power, Tata Motors and Tata Chemicals.

The pharma stocks were in the red with Ranbaxy and Sun Pharma closing with losses.

The National Stock Exchange(NSE) 50-share S&P CNX Nifty index too lost 16.40 points at 3,402.55, as compared to the last close of 3,418 poiunts.

The combined turnover of BSE cash, NSE cash and Future&Options contracts was Rs 57,594 crore.

Top gainers on the Sensex today were BHEL up 5.19 per cent at Rs 2,246; Cipla was up 3.92 per cent at Rs 661.95; Tata Motors closed high by 2.73 per cent at Rs 932.60; Tata Steel was up by 2.71 per cent to Rs 536.40; Maruti Udyog was up by 2.25 per cent to Rs 874.35; Bajaj Auto was up by 1.91 per cent to Rs 2,746.85.

Tata Power was up by 1.02 per cent to Rs 579.45; Grasim Industries was up by 0.94 per cent to Rs 2,057.95; Gujarat Ambuja Cement was up by 0.73 per cent to Rs 103.25 and NTPC was up by 0.68 per cent to Rs 134.

Other marginal gainers were SBI, Reliance Industries and Dr Reddy's Lab.

Reliance Industries closed 0.14 per cent up at Rs 796.25, a total of 10.7 crore Reliance shares were exchanged today on both BSE and NSE.

Among the losers on the Sensex, Ranbaxy topped the table with its scrip going down by 4.50 per cent to close at Rs 431.60. TCS also went down by 3.74 per cent to Rs 1,914.15; ONGC lost by 2.03 per cent to Rs 1,309; ITC closed 1.96 per cent lower at Rs 194.95; Infosys was down by 1.78 per cent to Rs 2,980.85; HDFC closed 1.62 per cent down at Rs 1336.05; Larsen&Toubro was down by 1.21 per cent at Rs 2,432.60; Wipro slipped by 0.93 per cent to Rs 558.55; Bharti Televentures closed 0.61 per cent down to Rs 412.85; Hindalco closed 0.49 per cent down at Rs 182.45. Reddy's Lab closed 0.46 per cent down at Rs 1,418.70 and Maruti closed 0.13 per cent down at Rs 855.15.

The market breadth was evenly spread in the narrow market of Sensex scrips with advances and declines having a ratio of 1:1 as 15 scrips advanced and same number of scrips declined.

In the broader market, the advance-decline ratio was in favour of the gainers in the 2:1 ratio, with 1,741 scrips gaining and 736 declining out of 2,535 traded on the BSE.

UNI