The Sensex opened with a huge negative gap of 245 points at 14,893 on the back of weak cues from the global markets. The index soon tumbled to a low of 14,706 - down 432 points from its last close.

The index witnessed a minor pull back of 100-odd points in noon deals. A fresh round of buying towards the end of the day saw the index recover some more lost ground before settling at 14,903 - down 235 points.

The BSE Realty index plunged over 3% to 7377, and the IT index tumbled over 2% to 4598. The Metal index shed 1.6% to 11,139. The Auto index and Bankex were down 1% each to 4746 and 7963, respectively.

The market breadth was fairly negative - out of 2,669 stocks traded, 1,497 declined, 1,103 advanced and 69 were unchanged today.

Index shakers...

Hindalco [Get Quote], ICICI Bank [Get Quote], Maruti [Get Quote], Reliance Communications [Get Quote] and Larsen & Toubro tumbled around 3% each to Rs 157, Rs 888, Rs 825, Rs 532 and Rs 2,449, respectively.

Infosys [Get Quote] and Wipro [Get Quote] plunged 2.7% each to Rs 1,867 and Rs 458, respectively.

ACC and HDFC [Get Quote] dropped nearly 2.5% each to Rs 979 and Rs 1,942, respectively.

Hindustan Unilever, Satyam [Get Quote], Grasim [Get Quote], BHEL and Ambuja Cements slipped over 2% each to Rs 200, Rs 462, Rs 2,897, Rs 1,684 and Rs 126, respectively.

ONGC [Get Quote], HDFC Bank, NTPC, Cipla, Reliance, Bharti Airtel [Get Quote] and Reliance Energy [Get Quote] also declined today.

...and the movers

SBI [Get Quote] soared nearly 3% to Rs 1,682. ITC surged 1.8% to Rs 172. Ranbaxy [Get Quote] was up 1% at Rs 370.

Value & volume toppers

IFCI led the value chart with a turnover of Rs 227.80 crore followed by SBI (Rs 219.40 crore), Orbit Corporation [Get Quote] (Rs 157.20 crore), Reliance (Rs 146.60 crore) and GMR Infrastructure [Get Quote] (Rs 125 crore).

IFCI also led the volume chart with trades of around 3.70 crore shares followed by debutant Alpa Labs (90.65 lakh), Reliance Natural Resources [Get Quote] (81 lakh), Nagarjuna Fertilisers (53 lakh) and Managalore Chemicals (50.60 lakh).