The Sensex opened 40 points higher at 9,242, and soon touched a high of 9,247 before slipping into the negative zone. Weakness in auto and select technology stocks saw the index slide to a low of 9,017 - down 230 points from the day's high.
Selective buying towards the close helped the index cut losses. The index finally ended with a loss of 111 points at 9,091. The NSE Nifty ended at 2,780, down 23 points.
The market breadth was fairly negative - out of 2,566 stocks traded, 1,453 declined, 1,006 advanced and the rest were unchanged on Thursday.
Index Shakers. . .
Sterlite and Mahindra & Mahindra slumped 5.7% each to Rs 263 and Rs 267, respectively.
Maruti plunged 4% to Rs 578. HDFC shed 3.8% at Rs 1,390, and TCS dropped 3.3% to Rs 483.
Tata Motors and Larsen & Toubro slipped over 2.5% each to Rs 132 and Rs 637, respectively.
Reliance Communications, Hindalco and Wipro declined around 2% each to Rs 160, Rs 43 and Rs 220, respectively.
Infosys shed 1.8% at Rs 1,260. Reliance, Hindustan Unilever, Tata Power, Jaiprakash Associates and HDFC Bank were down around 1.5% each at Rs 1,287, Rs 264, Rs 743, Rs 68 and Rs 884, respectively.
. . .And The Movers
Grasim surged over 3% to Rs 1,326.
Tata Steel and Ranbaxy moved up around 1.5% each to Rs 182 and Rs 209, respectively.
Most Active Counters
Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 192.85 crore followed by Wire & Wireless (Rs 106.40 crore), Reliance Infrastructure (Rs 99.35 crore), Satyam (Rs 87.75 crore) and Reliance Capital (Rs 80.30 crore).
Wire & Wireless led the volume chart with trades of around 5.80 crore shares followed by Mercator Lines (2.20 crore), FSL (1.95 crore), Satyam (1.90 crore) and Ispat Industries (1.50 crore).
