The benchmark Sensex on Thursday plunged by 266 points to close at 8222. At 1521 hrs it had shed 301 points at 8187, the largest intra-day fall registered since May 17, last year on the Bombay Stock Exchange, as nervous market players and investors continued to reduce their holdings. Nifty, which had shed 100 points earlier, closed at 2472, down 95 points.

Funds sold heavily in index-linked stocks of Reliance Industries [Get Quote], Reliance Capital [Get Quote], Tata Consultancy [Get Quote], Tata Steel [Get Quote], Infosys Technologies, Bajaj Auto [Get Quote], Grasim [Get Quote], Housing Development Finance, ONGC [Get Quote], ICICI Bank [Get Quote] and State Bank of India [Get Quote].

The market experienced the second consecutive intra-day fall. Yesterday, it went into a tailspin and lost over 235 points after zooming to a record high of over 8,500 points recently.

The key index had tanked 565 points in a single trading session on May 17, 2004. The market sentiment turned sluggish on reports that a meeting of officials from finance ministry, Central Board of Direct Taxes and Directorate of Revenue held last week, planned to look into the ongoing boom in the stock markets.

The trading sentiment dampened further as market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India imposed special huge margins on buying at several counters.

ONGC plunged over 4% (Rs 43) to Rs 996. Reliance lost 3.5% (Rs 28) to Rs 755. HLL [Get Quote] dropped 3.5% (Rs 6) to Rs 165. ITC was down 2.6% (Rs 4) to Rs 136.

Infosys [Get Quote] lost over 2% (Rs 52) to Rs 2,413. Satyam [Get Quote] plumetted 5% (Rs 27) to Rs 528. TCS was down Rs 50 at Rs 1,403, and Wipro [Get Quote] dipped 4.6% (Rs 17) to Rs 356.

Bajaj dropped over 3% (Rs 53) to Rs 1,615. Hero Honda, Maruti [Get Quote] and Tata Motors [Get Quote] also declined.

Hindalco [Get Quote] slumped over 6% (Rs 10) to Rs 145. Bharti dropped over 4% (Rs 15) to Rs 335. BHEL was down Rs 33 at Rs 1,102. HDFC [Get Quote] was down Rs 24 at Rs 966.

Grasim slipped 4% (Rs 50) to Rs 1,310. Gujarat Ambuja [Get Quote] and ACC also finished with steep losses.

SBI dipped 3% (Rs 27) to Rs 892. HDFC Bank also lost over 3% (Rs 24) to Rs 699. ICICI Bank was down Rs 4 at Rs 573.

Ranbaxy [Get Quote] was down over 4% (Rs 21) at Rs 495. Cipla and Dr. Reddy's also declined.