The Sensex opened with a negative gap of 128 points at 14,518.

After a touching a high of 14,584, the index slipped deeper into red, amid lacklustre movement, to a low of 14,369 - down 277 points from the previous close.

The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 102 points at 14,544.

The market breadth was fairly negative - out of 2,711 stocks traded, 1,514 declined, 1,107 advanced and 90 stocks were unchanged on Tuesday.

INDEX SHAKERS. . .

ACC slumped nearly 6% to Rs 560. Maruti [Get Quote] tumbled nearly 4% to Rs 616.

HDFC [Get Quote], Satyam [Get Quote] and Reliance Communications [Get Quote] plunged over 3% each to Rs 2,283, Rs 406 and Rs 400, respectively.

Bharti Airtel [Get Quote] and ITC shed 2% each at Rs 792 and Rs 184, respectively.

Sterlite slipped 1.6% to Rs 602. Mahindra & Mahindra, ONGC [Get Quote], BHEL and SBI [Get Quote] were down around 1% each at Rs 561, Rs 1,063, Rs 1,678 and Rs 1,444, respectively.

. . .AND THE MOVERS

Reliance Infrastructure gained 2.3% at Rs 994.

Hindalco [Get Quote] and ICICI Bank [Get Quote] gained 2% each at Rs 132 and Rs 678, respectively.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

Vihsal Info topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 278.60 crore followed by Reliance Capital [Get Quote] (Rs 224 crore), Reliance (Rs 153 crore), Reliance Natural Resources [Get Quote] (Rs 150.80 crore) and SEL Manufacturing (Rs 147 crore).

Reliance Natural Resources led the volume chart with trades of around 1.60 crore shares followed by Vishal Info (95.15 lakh), Ispat Industries [Get Quote] (77.15 lakh), IFCI (70.55 lakh) and Reliance Petroleum [Get Quote] (68.40 lakh).