The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 48 points at 14,619. Fresh buying in early trades saw the index rally to a high of 14,683. The index, however, could not hold gains for long as selling pressure mainly in auto, cement and select technology stocks dragged the index into negative zone.

The selling picked momentum in late noon trades and the index dropped to a low of 14,466 - down 217 points from the day's high.

The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 75 points at 14,496.

The BSE Auto index tumbled 1.6% to 4948, and the IT index slipped 1.3% to 4847. The Metal index, however, surged 1.6% to 10,634.

The market breadth was marginally negative - out of 2,654 stocks traded, 1,383 declined, 1,185 advanced and 86 were unchanged today.

Movers & shakers

Tata Motors [Get Quote] plunged nearly 5% to Rs 711. Grasim [Get Quote], BHEL and Cipla dropped 3% each to Rs 2,440, Rs 1,372 and Rs 218, respectively.

HLL [Get Quote] and Satyam [Get Quote] slipped 2.4% each to Rs 196 and Rs 467, respectively.

Wipro [Get Quote] shed nearly 2% to Rs 534. Larsen & Toubro and ACC declined 1.6% each to Rs 1,970 and Rs 839, respectively.

Bharti Airtel [Get Quote], Infosys [Get Quote] and ONGC [Get Quote] were down 1% each to Rs 827, Rs 1,916 and Rs 900, respectively.

Hindalco [Get Quote] zoomed to a high of Rs 156 amid talks of a possible takeover, but eventually pared gains and ended 4% higher at Rs 147.

SBI [Get Quote] and ITC rallied 2% each to Rs 1,407 and Rs 165, respectively.

NTPC and Dr.Reddy's gained 1% each at Rs 160 and Rs 655, respectively.

Value & volume toppers

Reliance Capital [Get Quote] topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 143.80 crore followed by MIC Electronics (Rs 139.60 crore), Indiabulls [Get Quote] Real (Rs 103.50 crore), SBI (Rs 97.30 crore) and Hindalco (Rs 92.40 crore).

Reliance Natural [Get Quote] led the volume chart with trades of around 1.23 crore shares followed by Asahi Song (63 lakh), Hindalco (61.50 lakh), Nagarjuna Fertilisers (54.80 lakh) and  Mangalore Chemicals (44.70 lakh).