The Sensex opened marginally (24 points) higher at 14,307, and soon touched an intra-day high of 14,317.

The index, thereafter, slipped into negative zone on sustained selling pressure. The index slipped to a low of 14,186 - down 131 points from the day's high - in noon deals. The Sensex finally settled with a loss of 71 points at 14,212.

The Bankex and FMCG index dropped 2% each to 7293 and 1914, respectively. The IT index slipped 1% to 5316. The Metal index, however, gained over 1% at 9760.

The market breadth was almost neutral - out of 2,689 stocks traded, 1,330 advanced, 1,309 declined and 50 were unchanged.

Index movers & shakers

Reliance Communications flared up over 4% to Rs 456. NTPC surged nearly 4% to Rs 143. BHEL was up over 2% at Rs 2,506.

While Hindalco rallied over 3% to Rs 181, Tata Steel advanced 2% to Rs 519.

Cipla gained 1.5% at Rs 248, and Ranbaxy added 1.3% to Rs 402. Reliance was up nearly 1% at Rs 1,382.

ITC slipped over 3% to Rs 172. ICICI Bank, Tata Motors and Wipro also dropped 3% each to Rs 956, Rs 900, and Rs 631, respectively.

Satyam and Gujarat Ambuja tumbled 2.5% each to Rs 464 and Rs 135, respectively.

SBI declined 1.7% to Rs 1,155, and Dr.Reddy's dropped 1.5% to Rs 752.

Value & volume toppers

Indiabulls topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 206 crore followed by Pyramid Saimira (Rs 116.60 crore), Shree Ashtavinayak (Rs 104.35 crore), Reliance Communications (Rs 91.65 crore) and Sesa Goa (Rs 85.15 crore).

IFCI led the volume chart with trades of around 2.17 crore shares followed by SAIL (65.40 lakh), Himachal Futuristic (57.50 lakh), Indiabulls (55.55 lakh) and Reliance Natural Resources (51.80 lakh).