The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 11 points at 6,232. After moving in a narrow range through the morning session, the index hit the intra-day high of 6,249 in early noon deals.
Selling commenced soon after, and the index dropped to a low of 6,142 - a decline of 107 points from the intra-day high.
A sharp pullback towards the closing bell saw the Sensex finally finish with a loss of 47 points (0.76%) at 6,174.
The Nifty lost 23 points to close at 1931.
While 21 index scrips declined today with a volume of 1.30 crore shares totalling Rs 615 crore, nine advanced with a volume of 51 lakh shares for Rs 220 crore.
Heavyweights finished on a mixed note. ITC moved up 1.5% (Rs 18) to Rs 1,260. Infosys was up marginally (Rs 11) at Rs 1,976. HLL was unchanged at Rs 140.
SBI dropped over 2% (Rs 14) to Rs 578. Reliance was down more than a per cent (Rs 7) to Rs 513. ONGC also declined more than a per cent (Rs 9) to Rs 779.
Auto scrips were hammered today. Hero Honda slumped 6% (Rs 33) to Rs 524. Bajaj declined 4% (Rs 46) to Rs 1,066. Maruti also slipped over 4% (Rs 18) to Rs 419.
Tata Power dropped over 4% (Rs 15) to Rs 343. Reliance Energy declined 3% (Rs 16) to Rs 489. Grasim was down 2.4% (Rs 30) at Rs 1,252. While Satyam slipped 2% (Rs 8) to Rs 362, Wipro was down marginally (Rs 2) at Rs 667.
HDFC Bank advanced over 3% (Rs 15) to Rs 515. HDFC was up over a per cent (Rs 10) at Rs 733. Bharti Tele gained Rs 3 to Rs 210.
