The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 84 points at 14,512 and hit a high of 14,534 in early deals.

Relentless selling in tech and bank stocks saw the index drop to a low of 13,942 in late afternoon deals - an intra-day swing of 590 points.

The index finally closed with a loss of 438 points (3%) at 13,989.

The BSE Realty index slumped over 4% to 6844. The Bankex also dropped over 4% to 7324.

The breadth was extremely bearish - out of 2,767 scrips traded, 2,235 (80%) declined today.

No gainers in index scrips

All the 30 Sensex scrips declined today.

SBI [Get Quote] slumped over 5% to Rs 1,464. ICICI Bank [Get Quote] slipped 4.8% to Rs 830.

Wipro [Get Quote] was down nearly 5% at Rs 447. Infosys [Get Quote] declined 3.7% to Rs 1,761. TCS [Get Quote] and Satyam [Get Quote] slipped over 3% each to Rs 1,016 and Rs 416, respectively.

Reliance dropped 2.5% to Rs 1,747.

Reliance Communications [Get Quote], Reliance Energy [Get Quote] and M&M declined over 3% each to Rs 484, Rs 692 and Rs 612, respectively.

Most active counters

Debutant Sel Manufacturing was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 335 crore followed by Central Bank (which was also listed today) at Rs 305 crore, Reliance (Rs 189 crore) and SBI (Rs 121 crore).