Mirroring weakness in the Asian markets, the Sensex opened with a negative gap of 49 points at 14,309. The index could barely manage to touch a high of 14,319 before sliding deeper into negative zone.

Aggressive selling in the noon session saw the index tumble to a low of 13,780 - down 578 points from its previous close.

Renewed buying at lower levels helped the index recover most of its losses by late noon deals. Heavyweights Reliance, ICICI Bank, SBI, HDFC and Wipro rebounded and led the recovery today.

A fresh round of selling towards the fag end of the day saw the Sensex finally close with a loss of 217 points at 14,141.

The BSE Metal index shed 4.7% to 9812. The IT index tumbled 3% to 4500. The Auto and FMCG indices dropped over 2% each to 4561 and 1812, respectively.

The market breadth was fairly negative - out of 2,719 stocks traded, 1,836 declined, 852 advanced and 31 were unchagned today.

INDEX SHAKERS....

Satyam slumped 5.8% to Rs 440. Infosys and TCS tumbled almost 3% each to Rs 1,855 and Rs 1,056, respectively.

Tata Steel shed 5.4% to Rs 544. ONGC plunged 4.4% to Rs 783.

Hindalco dropped 3.7% to Rs 140, and Tata Motors slipped 3.3% to Rs 641.

ITC and NTPC declined 3% each to Rs 153 and Rs 163, respectively. ACC and BHEL were down nearly 3% each at Rs 952 and Rs 1,559, respectively.

Bajaj Auto and Grasim slipped around 2.5% each to Rs 2,251 and Rs 2,725, respectively.

Ranbaxy and HDFC Bank dropped over 2% each to Rs 353 and Rs 1,069, respectively. Hindustan Unilever declined 2% to Rs 192.

...AND THE MOVERS

Wipro and HDFC moved up over 1% each to Rs 475 and Rs 1,910, respectively. Reliance added nearly 1% (Rs 14) to Rs 1,753.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 314 crore followed by debutant Zylog System (Rs 309 crore), Tata Steel (Rs 211.30 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs 205.40 crore) and SBI (Rs 191 crore).

Nagarjuna Fertilisers led the volume chart with trades of around 4.20 crore shares followed by Bellary Steel (1.97 crore), IFCI (1.92 crore), Harig Cranks (1.59 crore) and Reliance Natural (1.39 crore).