The Sensex, after opening with a small gain of five points at 5,927, displayed mixed trends, but remained steady in positive territory in the morning session, and touched a high of 5,962.

The sentiment turned negative at the start of the afternoon session as stocks began to ease on profit-taking. The markets witnessed a total sell-off towards the closing bell, as a wave of selling pressure dragged the index below the 5,800 levels to a low of 5,728.

The Sensex, which moved in an intra-day range of 234 points on extreme volatility, eventually ended the session with a huge loss of 164 points at 5,758.

The Nifty dropped 68 points to close at 1,825.

Reliance came under sustained selling pressure, and slipped 3.67% (Rs 21) to Rs 551. While ITC declined a per cent (Rs 9) to Rs 1,110, HLL ended with a loss of 1.67% (Rs 3) at Rs 200.

SBI crashed 4.52% (Rs 28) to Rs 594. BHEL lost 4.50% (Rs 25) to Rs 521. While HPCL shed 3.79% (Rs 17) to Rs 422, MTNL dipped 3% (Rs 4) to Rs 137.

ONGC at Rs 742 (down Rs 78 or 9.52%), Hindalco at Rs 1,328 (down Rs 43 or 3.11%) and HDFC at Rs 626 (down Rs 25 or 3.89%) displayed weak trends on an unabated selling pressure.

Grasim (down Rs 26 or 2.32% to Rs 1,094), L&T (down Rs 10 or 2% to Rs 509), Gujarat Ambuja (down Rs 17 or 5.65% to Rs 281) and ACC (down Rs 8 or 3.25% to Rs 241) ended with steep losses.

Hero Honda slumped 6.39% (Rs 31) to Rs 451. While Tata Motors plunged 5.69% (Rs 28) to Rs 458, Bajaj dropped 3.40% (Rs 36) to Rs 1,035.

Ranbaxy declined 3.10% (Rs 34) to Rs 1,048. Cipla closed down a per cent (Rs 14) at Rs 1,296. Dr. Reddy's, however, closed up a rupee at Rs 1,342.

Tata Power, on steep selling pressure, lost 8.40% (Rs 32) to Rs 351. Tisco was battered today, and declined 4.75% (Rs 21) to Rs 417.

Zee shed 4.14% (Rs 7) to Rs 151.

Wipro, which traded on a mixed note during the intra-day trades, finally slumped 3.73% (Rs 64) to Rs 1,650. The software major reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 274.3 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2003, an 18% increase from Rs 230.7 crore in Q3FY03.

Infosys, after trading in a positive zone for better part of the trading session, ended off-gains with a loss of Rs 21 at Rs 5,370. Satyam lost 2.32% (Rs 7) to Rs 312.

BSES, which reported a 539% increase in net profit at Rs 93.3 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2003 as against Rs 14.6 crore in Q3FY03, ended 4.71% lower (Rs 25) at Rs 500 on the BSE.

Bharti Tele, continuing with its upward trend from yesterday's close, gained 5% (Rs 6) to Rs 124.