Mirroring the weak trend in the global markets, the Sensex opened with a negative gap of 207 points at 15,344. Unabated across-the-board selling saw the index tumble to 14,911. The Sensex finally ended with a hefty loss of 615 points (3.96%) at 14,936. This is the third-biggest loss for the index in absolute terms.

Elsewhere in Aisa, Hong Kong's Hang Seng slumped 730 points to 22,455. Japan's Nikkei plunged 378 points to 16,871. Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted index crashed 395 points to 8892, and China's Shanghai Composite index shed 170 points at 4301.

The BSE Realty index plunged over 6% to 7333. The Metal and Capital Goods indices dropped nearly 5% each to 11,071 and 12,697, respectively. The Auto, Bankex, FMCG, Healthcare, IT and Oil & Gas indices slipped 2-4% each.

The market breadth was very bearish with almost 80% stocks traded on the BSE ending with losses. Out of 2,646 stocks traded, 2,114 declined, 493 advanced and 39 were unchanged today.

INDEX SHAKERS

There was not a single gainer among the index stocks today.

ACC plunged nearly 9% to Rs 966. Reliance Energy slumped 7% to Rs 737, and Hindalco shed over 6% at Rs 159.

Ranbaxy dropped nearly 6% to Rs 368. Reliance Communications, Tata Steel, Reliance and Mahindra & Mahindra tumbled 5% each to Rs 531, Rs 622, Rs 1,798 and Rs 694, respectively.

SBI, Larsen & Toubro and Tata Motors slipped 4.7% each to Rs 1,548, Rs 2,485 and Rs 667, respectively.

Bharti Airtel declined 4.5% to Rs 863. Wipro and BHEL dropped 4% each to Rs 476 and Rs 1,663, respectively.

ICICI Bank, HDFC, Grasim and TCS shed nearly 4% each to Rs 891, Rs 1,941, Rs 2,849 and Rs 1,116, respectively.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Debutant Everonn Systems topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 367.50 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 290 crore), Reliance Energy (Rs 203.30 crore), SBI (Rs 170 crore) and Reliance Communications (Rs 161.40 crore).

Reliance Natural Resources led the volume chart with trades of around 1.36 crore shares followed by IFCI (1.09 crore), Everonn Systems (71.78 lakh), Industrial Investment (54.50 lakh) and Bellary Steel (54 lakh).