The Sensex opened with a negative gap of 86 points as a result of the sharp drop in ICICI Bank. Weakness in morning trades saw the index slip to a low of 13,694 - down 215 points from its previous close.

Buying in Reliance, Reliance Communications and technology stocks saw the index finally close at 13,872 - down 36 points.

The Bankex dropped nearly 3% to 6883. The FMCG index was down over 1% to 1801.

On the other hand, the Auto and Metal indices were up over 1% each at 4999 and 9836, respectively.

The market breadth was positive - out of 2,549 stocks traded, 1,403 advanced, 1,071 declined and 75 were unchanged today.

A mixed bag

Reliance Communications rallied nearly 4% to Rs 477.

TCS surged 2.5% to Rs 1,266. Infosys advanced over 2% to Rs 2,049, and Satyam added 1% to Rs 473.

Hero Honda, Tata Steel and ACC moved up over 2% each to Rs 684, Rs 550 and Rs 839, respectively.

Reliance gained over 1% to Rs 1,560. Maruti and HDFC Bank were up 1% each at Rs 803 and Rs 1,026, respectively.

ICICI Bank tumbled to a low of Rs 844 on fears of equity dilution following the bank's plan to raise Rs 20,000 crore through fresh issue from the domestic and overseas markets. The stock finally ended with a loss of over 7% at Rs 866.

HLL plunged nearly 5% to Rs 199. Cipla shed 3% to Rs 211.

ONGC dropped nearly 2% to Rs 912. Bharti Airtel and HDFC slipped over 1.5% each to Rs 812 and Rs 1,660, respectively.

Most active counters

Reliance Communications topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 160.70 crore followed by IFCI (Rs 154.40 crore), Reliance (Rs 117.50 crore), Tech Mahindra (Rs 88.65 crore) and ICICI Bank (Rs 85.35 crore).

IFCI led the volume chart with trades of around 3.60 crore shares followed by Tata Teleservices (1.20 crore), G V Films (42.20 lakh), Orbit Corporation (39.45 lakh) and Reliance Communications (34.40 lakh).