Sensex hits 21,000; ends up 61 points

The Sensex opened with a huge positive gap of 157 points at 20,970, and rallied past the 21,000-mark to a fresh all-time high of 21,078.

Profit-taking at higher levels saw the index drop to a low of 20,697 - down 381 points from the peak. Fresh buying towards the end saw the index finish with a gain of 61 points at 20,873.

The Smallcap Index plunged 3.3% (459 points) to 13,516, and the Midcap Index tumbled 2.8% (285 points) to 9817.

The market breadth was extremely negative - out of 2,922 stocks traded, 2,369 declined, 541 advanced and 12 were unchanged today.

Index movers

Bharti Airtel [ Get Quote ] zoomed 4% to Rs 974. HDFC Bank [ Get Quote ] soared 3.6% to Rs 1,716.

Satyam [ Get Quote ], SBI [ Get Quote ] and Mahindra & Mahindra surged around 2.5% each to Rs 424, Rs 2,465 and Rs 830, respectively.

Reliance Communications [ Get Quote ] and ONGC [ Get Quote ] rallied nearly 2% each to Rs 804 and Rs 1,322, respectively.

TCS [ Get Quote ] and Infosys [ Get Quote ] advanced 1.5% each to Rs 991 and Rs 1,662, respectively.

DLF and Larsen & Toubro gained over 1% each at Rs 1,151 and Rs 4,333, respectively.

Reliance and Wipro [ Get Quote ] were also up around 1% each at Rs 3,050 and Rs 488, respectively.

and shakers

Hindalco [ Get Quote ] and Tata Steel [ Get Quote ] plunged 3.7% each to Rs 209 and Rs 892, respectively.

Grasim [ Get Quote ] shed 3.3% to Rs 3,401. Maruti [ Get Quote ] slipped 2.4% to Rs 940.

ICICI Bank [ Get Quote ] and Reliance Energy [ Get Quote ] tumbled around 2% each to Rs 1,333 and Rs 2,536, respectively.

ACC, Tata Motors [ Get Quote ] and HDFC dropped around 1.5% each to Rs 985, Rs 774 and Rs 3,064, respectively.

NTPC and Cipla declined 1.3% each to Rs 265 and Rs 209, respectively. Hindustan Unilever was down over 1% at Rs 235.

Most active counters

Reliance Natural Resources [ Get Quote ] topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 1,020.35 crore followed by Reliance Petroleum [ Get Quote ] (Rs 600 crore), Reliance Communications (Rs 334.30 crore), Reliance (Rs 276.50 crore) and Himachal Futuristic (Rs 273.80 crore).