The Sensex on Thursday opened with a loss of 1 point at 5,756. The markets witnessed extreme volatility in the afternoon trades, as the index, on the back of hectic buying in almost all the sectors, crossed the 5,800 mark to hit a high of 5,820.
The markets soon turned bearish and remained lacklustre thereafter, as unabated selling in most the sectors saw the index slip below the 5,700 levels to touch a low of 5,648.
The Sensex pared losses on selective gains at the close, and finally ended 36 points down at 5,721.
The Nifty, too, after a mixed outing, ended 18 points lower at 1,804.
ITC lost 2.73% (Rs 27) to Rs 974. Reliance ended down a per cent (Rs 6) at Rs 566. HLL, however, closed up a rupee at Rs 194.
SBI slipped 1.41% (Rs 8) to Rs 582. MTNL declined 3.30% (Rs 4) to Rs 130. HPCL, however, moved up 1.77% (Rs 7) to close at Rs 431. BHEL ended up a per cent (Rs 4) at Rs 552.
Grasim shed 1.72% (Rs 19) to Rs 1,076. While L&T slumped 3.21% (Rs 17) to Rs 503, Gujarat Ambuja dipped 2.83% (Rs 8) to Rs 285. ACC closed down a rupee at Rs 255.
Hindalco at Rs 1,208 (down Rs 12 or 1%), BSES at Rs 571 (down Rs 8 or 1.46%) and Bharti Tele at Rs 128 (down Rs 3 or 2.17%) ended at weaker levels.
Tisco dipped 3% (Rs 12) to Rs 404. Tata Power shed 2.73% (Rs 10) to Rs 369.
Zee plunged 5.64% (Rs 9) to Rs 147.
Infosys rose 1.72% (Rs 93) to close at Rs 5,462. Satyam logged 2.52% gains (Rs 8) to Rs 313. Wipro, however, ended in the red with a per cent loss (Rs 14) at Rs 1,503.
Tata Motors fell sharply on sustained selling pressure, and dropped 4.71% (Rs 26) to Rs 519. Bajaj and Hero Honda ended with steady gains at Rs 1,033 (up Rs 4) and Rs 466 (up Rs 5), respectively.
Dr. Reddy's lost 1.16% (Rs 15) to close at Rs 1,308. Ranbaxy closed down a tad at Rs 988. Cipla, however, was marginally up Rs 2 at Rs 1,152.
HDFC Bank gained 2.48% (Rs 9) to Rs 359. ICICI Bank also ended with gains at Rs 308 - up Rs 5 or 1.65%.