The Sensex opened with a huge negative gap of 260 points at 12,812 following the Reserve Bank of India decision to hike the cash reserve ratio and repo rate last Friday.

Unabated selling, mainly in auto and banking stocks, saw the index drift to lower levels as the day progressed. The index tumbled to a low of 12,426 before finally settling with a hefty loss of 617 points (4.7%) at 12,455. In the process, the index today recorded its second-biggest loss ever in absolute terms.

The BSE Mid-cap index plunged 3.3% (175 points) to 5209, and the Small-cap index slumped 2.7% (176 points) to 6294.

The Bankex and the auto index tumbled around 6% each to 6153 and 4570, respectively. The IT, Metal and Oil & Gas indices dropped around 4% each to 4673, 8132 and 6172, respectively.

The market breadth was fairly bearish - out of 2,546 stocks traded, 1,771 declined, 702 advanced and 73 were unchanged today.

In bear zone

All the index stocks ended in the red today.

Maruti and Tata Motors plunged 8% each to Rs 753 and Rs 669, respectively. Hero Honda slumped over 7% to Rs 635, and Bajaj Auto shed 5% to Rs 2,301.

SBI tumbled over 6% to Rs 930. ICICI Bank dropped nearly 6% to Rs 805, and HDFC Bank declined 5% to Rs 902.

Wipro slipped over 7% to Rs 518. Larsen & Tourbo and HDFC were down nearly 6% each at Rs 1,525 and Rs 1,433, respectively.

ONGC, Tata Steel and Reliance Communications dropped around 5.5% each to Rs 828, Rs 424 and Rs 397, respectively.

Satyam shed 5% to Rs 446, and BHEL slipped 4.7% to Rs 2,154.

HLL and Infosys were down around 4.5% each to Rs 196 and Rs 1,921, respectively.

Relaince, Bharti Airtel, Cipla and ACC declined around 4% each to Rs 1,314, Rs 731, Rs 226 and Rs 705, respectively.

Value & volume toppers

Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 164 crore followed by Indiabulls Real Estate (Rs 104.45 crore), Infosys (Rs 102.30 crore), Reliance Communications (Rs 71.90 crore) and Renuka Sugar (Rs 70.80 crore).

IFCI led the volume chart with trades of around 1.80 crore shares followed by Rana Sugar (41.52 lakh), Indiabulls Real Estate (37.64 lakh), Reliance Natural Resources (28.50 lakh) and Sakthi Sugar (26.20 lakh).