The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 40 points at 16,824. After advacing to a high of 16,871, the index slipped into red to 16,589 - down 282 points from the day' high.
The Sensex, thereafter, moved in a narrow range, and finally ended with a loss of 86 points at 16,698.
The market breadth was marginally positive - out of 2,780 stocks traded, 1,428 advanced, 1,295 declined and 57 were unchanged on Wednesday.
The NSE Nifty settled with a loss of 26 points at 5,023.
Index shakers
HDFC Bank plunged 3% to Rs 1,443. Hindalco and BHEL shed 2.5% each at Rs 188 and Rs 1,827, respectively.
SBI, ICICI Bank and Ranbaxy dropped 2% each to Rs 1,696, Rs 864 and Rs 477, respectively.
Bharti Airtel declined 1.5% to Rs 844. Satyam, Reliance, ONGC and Jaiprakash Associates were down over 1% each at Rs 430, Rs 2,577, Rs 1,043 and Rs 243, respectively.
And the movers
ACC surged 3% to Rs 844. Infosys and Wipro also rallied nearly 3% each to Rs 1,646 and Rs 443, respectively.
Grasim and Tata Steel gained over 2% each at Rs 2,656 and Rs 798, respectively.
Hindustan Unilever and DLF moved up over 1.5% each to Rs 242 and Rs 684, respectively.
Most active counters
Reliance Petroleum topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 277 crore followed by IFCI (Rs 259.70 crore), Reliance (Rs 214.25 crore), Reliance Natural Resources (Rs 214 crore) and Reliance Capital (Rs 167.30 crore).
IFCI led the volume chart with trades of around 4.20 crore shares followed by Ispat Industries (2.74 crore), Reliance Natural Resources (1.80 crore), Indiabulls Securities (1.50 crore) and Tata Teleservices (1.44 crore).
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