Downmove continues; Infosys, Wipro buck trend

The Sens*x opened 68 points lower at 9,042, but soon rebounded into the positive zone led by fresh buying in Infosys, post results. The index touched a high of 9,261 - up 219 points from the day's open. The index, however, could not hold gains as weakness in select index heavyweights saw the index swing between zones in mid-noon trades.

The index extended losses in late trades and slipped to a low of 8,993 - down 268 points from the day's high. The Sens*x finally ended with a marginal loss of 39 points at 9,071. In the process, the index is now down over 12% (1,265 points) in the last four trading days.

The BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices dropped around 1.5% each at 3,006 and 3,442, respectively.

The BSE Oil & Gas index shed 1.8% at 5,489. The Bankex, Metal and Power indices dropped over 1% each to 5,126, 4,855 and 1,696, respectively. The IT index, however, surged 4.7% to 2,148.

The market breadth was fairly negative - out of 2,498 stocks traded, 1,561 declined, 850 advanced and the rest were unchanged.

INDEX MOVERS...

Infosys soared nearly 6.5% to Rs 1,230 after the company announced 33% rise in Q3 bottomline, backed by 35% surge in topline. The stock had opened in red, and slipped to a low of Rs 1,101 in opening trades. OVer 12 lakh shares changed hands at the counter on the BSE today.

Wipro witnessed a superb recovery today. The stock, which, shed nearly 12% in opening trades at Rs 200, shot back sharply into green to end with a gain of 6% at Rs 241 following the company's CEO clarification of no impact from the World Bank ban. The counter clocked a volume of nearly 40 lakh shares today