Heavy selling in opening trades saw the Nifty break the psychological 5,000-mark, but recovered partially at close on good quarterly numbers from market heavyweights.

The Sensex opened in the red on weak cues from Asian markets. The index slipped to a low of 16,608 - falling below the 17K mark after 19 trading sessions.

Strong quarterly numbers from Reliance and ITC lifted market sentiment and the index recovered to touch a high of 17,000 -- up 392 points from the day's low. However, the index eventually ended at 16,860 -- down 191 points (1%).

The NSE Nifty, which, broke the psychological the 5,000-mark and touched a low of 4,955, recovered partially and ended with a loss of 58 points (1%) to 5,036.

The BSE FMCG index, led by heavyweight ITC, bucked overall trend and jumped 1.5% to 2,772. ITC added 2% to Rs 249 following a 27% rise in Q3 net at Rs 1,144 crore.

However, weakness persisted in the BSE realty, IT and bankex indices as they dropped around 1.5% each.

Tata Steel slumped 3.6% to Rs 625. Larsen & Toubro continued to fall following it sQ3 results which were announced yesterday. The stock slipped 3.4% to Rs 1,472.

DLF, Sun Pharma, Jaiprakash Associates, ONGC and ACC shed 2%-3% each.

IT stocks fell. TCS dropped 2% to Rs 755. Infosys was down 1.8% to Rs 2,573. Wipro ended at Rs 700.

Banking stocks - ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and SBI also declined.

However, Q3 results helped some stocks to gain in an otherwise volatile market. BHEL gained 3.2% at Rs 2,373 on a 35% jump in the third quarter on FY10.

Market heavyweight, Reliance ended flat at Rs 1,053. Earlier in the day, the company announced a 16% increase in net in the quarter ended December 2009. The net profit stood at Rs 4,008 crore as compared to Rs 3,462 crore in the year ago period.