Sensex ended with negative gap of 101.93 pts

Mumbai, Aug 19: The benchmark index of the Bombay Stock Exchange ended with a negative gap of 101.93 points at 14,543.73 after recovering from the day's low amid an extremely volatile session. Sensex opened on a negative note at 14,517.76 and remained subdued in red throughout the day due to sustained selling in several stocks, cutting across sectors.

It touched a day's low of 14,368.72, lost 277.14 points from its previous close of 14,645.66 on extended selling pressure in mid-afternoon trade. However, it recovered in late trade as there was some spirited buying in a few blue chip stocks during the last few minutes, brokers said. Meanwhile, the broader-based Nifty index of National Stock Exchange, which had touched a day's low of 4316.55, settled at 4368.25 with a loss of 24.80 points in late trade.

Consumer durables and telecom stocks closed with sharp fall.

IT stocks failed to retain gains and settled well off their intra-day high levels. Auto, metal, FMCG and PSU stocks also ended on a negative note.

Globally, European markets ended weak on fears of more losses from the US mortgage crisis and Asian markets were mixed today.

The BSE Mid-Cap and Small-cap indices ended marginally low at 5,779.17 and 7,018.28, respectively.

Overall, the market breadth was weak on BSE with 1,130 shares advancing 1,491 declined and 88 shares were unchanged.

The BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 3955 crore against Rs 3,847.50 in the previous session.

Index frontliners, HDFC was down 3.24pc to Rs 2,283.25, Reliance Communications by 3.06pc to Rs 399.80 and Bharti Airtel by 2.05 pc to Rs 791.60. However, Reliance Infrastructure gained 2.26pc to Rs 994.30, Hindalco Industries was up 2.08pc to Rs 132.35, Hindustan Unilever was marginally up to Rs 243.45, HDFC Bank was up 0.59pc to Rs 1207.45 and NTPC was up 0.5pc to Rs 181.40.

Satyam Computer Services ended down by 3.21 pc to Rs 405.65, Infosys by 0.53pc to Rs 1,693.55 and Tata Consultancy Services closed marginally down at Rs 840.10.

Auto stocks also ended lower, Maruti Suzuki India declined 3.9pc to Rs 616.20, Mahindra&Mahindra dropped 1.21pc to Rs 561.20 and Tata Motors was down 0.46pc to Rs 423.35.

India's largest lender State Bank of India fell 0.96pc to Rs 1,443.80. The bank's chairman O.P. Bhatt today said a planned strike by bank unions against mergers between state banks was unlikely to hinder its plans to acquire State Bank of Saurashtra.

India's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank rose 2.01pc to Rs 678.35. The Bank has reportedly sold about USD 275 million from its credit derivative portfolio in its foreign branches.

UNI