The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 26 points at 12,570. The index advanced to a high of 12,639 in early trades, but soon slipped into red owing to selling pressure at higher levels.

Persistent seliing in bank, cement and engineering stocks forced the index drop to a low of 12,316 -- down 323 points from the day's high. Selective buying towards the end helped the index recoup some losses. The Sensex finally settled with a loss of 113 points at 12,430. The NSE Nifty ended at 3,609, down 35 points.

In the process, the index ended the week with a loss of 455 ponits. The BSE Bankex dropped 1.4% to 6108. The FMCG, IT and PSU indices slipped 1% each to 1626, 4879 and 5444, respectively. The market breadth was fairly negative -- out of 2,617 stocks traded, 1,734 declined, 817 advanced and 66 were unchanged on Friday.

Losers & Gainers

Reliance Communications shed 3.5% to Rs 377. Larsen & Toubro plunged 3% to Rs 1,449. BHEL and Hero Honda tumbled 2.5% each to Rs 1,956 and Rs 652, respectively.

Maruti and Gujarat Ambuja slipped over 2% each to Rs 779 and Rs 104, respectively. Cipla, ONGC, ITC, Infosys, HDFC Bank, Reliance Energy, Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank and ACC dropped around 1.5% each to Rs 224, Rs 762, Rs 145, Rs 2,047, Rs 904, Rs 456, Rs 717, Rs 811 and Rs 722, respectively.

Tata Motors rallied over 3% to Rs 749. Ranbaxy gained 1.6% at Rs 316. Reliance and Dr Reddy's were up over 1% each to Rs 1,300 and Rs 682, respectively.

Value & Volume Toppers

MindTree topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 468 crore (Rs 4.68 billion)followed by debutant Raj Tele (Rs 211.10 crore or Rs 2.11 billion), Reliance (Rs 152.60 crore or Rs 1.52 billion), newly listed Page Industries (Rs 145.70 crore or Rs 1.45 billion) and Reliance Communications (Rs 138.10 crore or Rs 1.38 billion). Raj Tele led the volume chart with trades of around 95 lakh shares followed by IFCI (92.45 lakh), Idea (63.60 lakh), Page Industries (51 lakh) and MindTree (51 lakh).