The Sensex slipped into the red shortly after opening with a gain of 14 points at 6,041. After remaining subdued in the first half, the index slipped below the 6,000 mark in early noon deals owing to weakness in most of the counters. The markets witnessed a steep downfall towards the fag-end as broad-based selling across-the-board saw the index slip below the 5,900 levels to touch a low of 5,845.
The Sensex finally ended with a huge loss of 172 points at 5,855. The Nifty, too, ended with a steep loss of 58 points at 1,858.
Infosys plunged 4.59% (Rs 245) to Rs 5,096. While Wipro lost 5.22% (Rs 83) to Rs 1,506, Satyam crashed 6.52% (Rs 22) to Rs 313.
Reliance witnessed relentless selling pressure in its counter, and dropped 3.82% (Rs 23) to Rs 581. While HLL lost 3% (Rs 6) to Rs 182, ITC closed with a marginal loss of Rs 5 at Rs 1,077. MTNL, too, ended in the red at Rs 137 - down Rs 3 or 2.28%.
SBI plummetted 4.11% (Rs 26) to Rs 603. While BHEL declined 3.35% (Rs 21) to Rs 600, HPCL dipped 4% (Rs 19) to Rs 458.
Grasim (down Rs 43 or 3.63% to Rs 1,131), Gujarat Ambuja (down Rs 15 or 4.85% to Rs 304) and ACC (down Rs 8 or 3% to Rs 262) ended with steep losses. L&T was down a per cent (Rs 5) at Rs 542.
Bajaj slumped 3.25% (Rs 32) to Rs 952. While Tata Motors declined 3.42% (Rs 19) to Rs 544, Hero Honda lost 2.83% (Rs 14) to Rs 490.
Hindalco at Rs 1,320 (down Rs 17 or 1.285), ONGC at Rs 753 (down Rs 16 or 2%), BSES at Rs 638 (down Rs 28 or 4.15%) and ICICI Bank at Rs 311 (down Rs 6 or 2%) ended with significant losses.
Tata Power lost 4.70% (Rs 18) to Rs 374. Tisco declined 3.20% (Rs 14) to Rs 435. Zee shed 4.54% (Rs 7) to Rs 145.
Dr. Reddy's shed 2% (Rs 24) to Rs 1,218. Cipla and Ranbaxy closed down a per cent each at Rs 1,207 (down Rs 13) and Rs 984 (down Rs 14), respectively.
HDFC and Bharti Tele, however, closed up a per cent each at Rs 676 and Rs 158, respectively.
