The Sensex opened with a gain of 13 points at 5,747, but soon turned bearish as stocks succumbed to losses in early deals owing to selling in their counters. While selling continued till mid-afternoon deals, the markets fell sharply towards the fag end, as unprecedented selling pressure across-the-board saw the index slip below the 5,650 mark to touch a low of 5,607.

The Sensex finally ended 116 points down at 5,618. The Nifty slipped below the 1,800 mark, and lost 34 points to close at 1,787.

While only five Sensex stocks advanced, 25 declined today. Advancing shares registered a volume of 26 lakh for Rs 91.51 crore, and declining shares accounted for a volume of 3.12 crore amounting to Rs 1,460.54 crore.

ITC fell 3.82% (Rs 43) to Rs 1,072. While Reliance declined 2.13% (Rs 12) to Rs 554, HLL closed down a rupee at Rs 174.

SBI shed 3.31% (Rs 20) to Rs 587. HPCL lost 4.28% (Rs 20) to Rs 445. While BHEL slumped 5% (Rs 29) to Rs 557, MTNL dipped 3.62% (Rs 5) to Rs 135.

Infosys dropped 1.64% (Rs 83) to Rs 4,958. Wipro (down Rs 33 or 2.27% to Rs 1,430) and Satyam (down Rs 8 or 2.58% to Rs 294) also ended at lower levels.

Tata Motors eased 5.33% (Rs 28) to close below the Rs 500 mark at Rs 497. While Hero Honda dipped 3% (Rs 15) to Rs 498, Bajaj ended with a marginal loss of Rs 2 at Rs 904.

Grasim ended with a loss of Rs 1.52% (Rs 16) at Rs 1,064. While ACC lost 2.70% (Rs 7) to Rs 250, Gujarat Ambuja was down 2.10% (Rs 6) at Rs 292. L&T, however, ended with a per cent gain (Rs 3) at Rs 549.

Hindalco (down Rs 42 or 3.10% to Rs 1,285), ONGC (down Rs 43 or 6% to Rs 670) and HDFC Bank (down Rs 7 or 1.85% to Rs 364) ended deep into the red.

Tisco dropped 3.87% (Rs 17) to Rs 427. Tata Power lost 3% (Rs 11) to Rs 359.

Cipla emerged as few gainers in a weak market, and the stock gained 4% (Rs 48) to close at Rs 1,242. Dr. Reddy's added 1.38% (Rs 17) to Rs 1,259. Ranbaxy, however, was down 2% (Rs 20) at Rs 952.

Zee added 1.19% (Rs 2) to close at Rs 127.