The Sensex opened 65 points higher at 12,741. Fresh buying in early trades saw the index move up to a high of 12,935.
The index, however, could not hold gains and slipped into the negative zone in mid-noon trades.
The index dropped to a fresh yearly low of 12,514 - down 421 points from the day's high. The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 100 at 12,576.
In the process, the index has now shed nearly 10% (1,388 points) the last five trading days.
The market breadth was negative - out of 2,692 stocks traded, 1,801 declined, 812 advanced and 79 were unchanged on Wednesday.
The NSE Nifty slipped 44 points to end at 3,817.
INDEX MOVERS. . .
Ranbaxy zoomed 15% to Rs 471.
Bharti Airtel surged nearly 3% to Rs 730. ONGC gained 2.5% at Rs 866. Hindustan Unilever moved up 1.8% to Rs 215. Ambuja Cements and ITC added 1.3% each to Rs 81 and Rs 162, respectively.
. . .AND THE SHAKERS
DLF plunged 7.7% to Rs 394. Jaiprakash Associates slumped 6% to Rs 137. Mahindra & Mahindra tumbled 5.5% to Rs 494. HDFC shed 4.5% at Rs 1,721. SBI and Tata Steel dropped 3.3% each to Rs 1,139 and Rs 626, respectively. TCS slipped 3% to Rs 727. ACC and Tata Motors declined over 2% each to Rs 514 and Rs 395, respectively.
ICICI Bank, Wipro and Reliance Communications were down 1.7% each at Rs 520, Rs 371 and Rs 399, respectively.
Reliance and HDFC Bank dropped arond 1.5% each at Rs 1,945 and Rs 904, respectively.
VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS
Ranbaxy topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 319.30 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 309.30 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs 292.65 crore), Reliance Petroleum (Rs 282 crore) and Reliance Infrastructure (Rs 114 crore).
Reliance Petroleum led the volume chart with trades of around 1.81 crore shares followed by Reliance Natural Resources (1.75 crore), IFCI (1.35 crore), Ispat Industries (1.29 crore) and Chambal Fertilisers (1 crore).