Twice during the day the index tried to recover but eventually tumbled to a low of 10,900. The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 337 points at 10,947.
In the process, the index today broke its eight-day winning streak - wherein the index had gained 18% (1,717 points).
The Nifty lost 115 points to close at 3,370.
The BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indexes dropped over 4.5% each to 3,439 and 3,929, respectively.
The BSE Realty index slumped over 9% to 2,101. The Metal index shed 7% at 6,905. The Oil & Gas and Power indices declined around 4.5% each to 7,901 and 2,071, respectively. The FMCG index, however, rallied nearly 2% to 2,101.
The market breadth was fairly negative, with more the two declining stocks for every advancing share. Out of 2,653 stocks traded, 1,742 declined, 851 advanced and 60 were unchanged today.
INDEX SHAKERS...
Tata Motors tumbled nearly 14% to Rs 243. Reliance Infrastructure slumped over 9% to Rs 644.
DLF shed 8.6% at Rs 235. Tata Steel and Jaiprakash Associates plunged over 8% each to Rs 269 and Rs 113, respectively.
Hindalco and Ranbaxy dropped nearly 7% each to Rs 58 and Rs 186, respectively.
Reliance Communications and Larsen & Toubro declined around 5.5% each to Rs 217 and Rs 832, respectively.
Sterlite, Reliance, Mahindra & Mahindra and ONGC slipped nearly 5% each to Rs 401, Rs 1,737, Rs 451 and Rs 852, respectively.
ICICI Bank, Tata Power, SBI, BHEL and Bharti Airtel too ended with significant losses.
...AND THE MOVERS
ITC surged over 3% to Rs 192, and Wipro rallied nearly 3% to Rs 277.
Sun Pharma gained 2% at Rs 1,236. Hindustan Unilever was up 1.5% at Rs 239.
OTHER PROMINENT GAINERS...
Shriram Transport soared 15% to Rs 214. Jai Corp advanced 9% to Rs 170. RECL, Tata Tea, HPCL, BPCL, Cadila Healthcare, Power Finance, Asian Paints, Bajaj Auto, Indiabulls, ITC and Nestle went up 3-5% each.
...AND THE LOSERS
Suzlon Energy crashed 18% to Rs 56. India Infoline tumbled 16% to Rs 72. HDIL, Gujrat State Petronet, Lanco Infratech, Pantaloon Retail, Godrej Industries, Rolta India, Petronet LNG and IRB Infrastructure shed 11-15% each.
MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS
Reliance Capital topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 448.27 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 346.01 crore), Unitech (Rs 294.72 crore), Reliance Infra (Rs 263.62 crore) and ICICI Bank (Rs 205.65 crore).
Unitech led the volume charts with trades of around 5.94 crore shares followed by Reliance Natural Resources (3.06 crore), Suzlone (2.87 crore), Karuturi Glo ( 2.78crore) and Cals Refineries ( 2.34 crore).