The Sensex exhibited high volatility on Thursday. A recovery in the Asian markets helped the index recover from a weak start (down 60 points) at 14,196 in opening trades.

Smart gains in metal and technology stocks saw the index rally to a high of 14,363. However, the index could not hold gains for long, as considerable selling pressure in auto and FMCG stocks pulled down the index to a low of 14,139 -- down 224 points from the day's high.

The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 70 points at 14,186. The NSE Nifty finally ended at 4,180, down 18 points.

The BSE FMCG index shed 1.7% to 1812. The Auto, Bankex and Oil & Gas indices slipped 1% each to 4812, 7512 and 7393, respectively. The IT index, however, moved up 1.7% to 4958.

The market breadth was negative - out of 2,574 stocks traded, 1,456 declined, 1,043 advanced and 75 were unchanged on Thursday.

Auto, FMCG slide

Bajaj Auto [Get Quote] tumbled nearly 3% to Rs 2,155. Hero Honda and Maruti [Get Quote] slipped over 2% each to Rs 697 and Rs 761, respectively. Tata Motors [Get Quote] shed 1.4% to Rs 677.

ITC and HLL [Get Quote] dropped 2% each to Rs 155 and Rs 191, respectively.

ACC plunged over 2% to Rs 804. SBI [Get Quote] declined 2% to Rs 1,360, and HDFC Bank [Get Quote] was down 1.5% to Rs 1,110.

Larsen & Toubro, Reliance, Gujarat Ambuja [Get Quote], ONGC [Get Quote] and Reliance Energy [Get Quote] were the other major losers.

Satyam [Get Quote] soared 3.4% to Rs 481, and Wipro [Get Quote] surged 2.5% to Rs 545.

Hindalco [Get Quote] rallied 3% to Rs 153.

Value & Volume Toppers

Reliance Communications [Get Quote] topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 211.75 crore followed by Nitin Fire (Rs 207.25 crore), Reliance (Rs 159 crore), IFCI (Rs 125 crore) and SBI (Rs 121 crore).

IFCI led the volume chart with trades of around 2.52 crore shares followed by Reliance Natural [Get Quote] (85.60 lakh), G V Films [Get Quote] (64.20 lakh), Srei Infra (61.51 lakh) and Bellary Steel (55.80 lakh).