The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 46 points at 14,449, and soon spurted to a high of 14,467. However, selling pressure at higher levels saw the index slip into negative zone.

The index, thereafter, displayed lacklustre movement for the major part of the session today. Selling re-emerged in late noon deals and the index slipped to a low of 14,230 - down 237 points from the day's high.

The Sensex finally settled with a significant loss of 150 points at 14,253.

All BSE indices ended in the red. The BSE Auto, Bankex and PSU indices slipped 1.5% each to 5537, 7186 and 6116, respectively.

The market breath was fairly negative - out of 2,627 stocks traded, 1,889 declined, 680 advanced and 58 were unchanged today.

Index scrips decline

ONGC and Grasim slipped over 3% each to Rs 876 and Rs 2,571, respectively.

Reliance Energy and HLL shed 2.8% each to Rs 521 and Rs 200, respectively.

HDFC, Reliance Communications, Wipro, SBI and Maruti dropped around 2% each to Rs 1,652, Rs 452, Rs 664, Rs 1,106 and Rs 896, respectively.

Gujarat Ambuja, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Auto and TCS were the other major losers today.

Value & volume toppers

Indiabulls topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 241 crore followed by Global Broadcast (Rs 228 crore), Reliance (Rs 165 crore), Biocon (Rs 105 crore) and Cinemax India (Rs 102 crore).

IFCI led the volume chart with trades of around two crore shares followed by Reliance Petroleum (60.25 lakh), Zee News (57.27 lakh), Cinemax India (57 lakh), and Indiabulls (53.65 lakh).