The Sensex opened with a negative gap of 47 points at 17,800 on the back of weak cues from the global markets. The index, however, rebounded into the positive zone and touched a high of 17,890 in early trades.

Profit-taking at higher levels dragged the index back into the negative zone. As selling continued the index dropped to a low of 17,495 - down 395 points from the day's high.

Selective buying helped the Sensex cut losses and eventually end at 17,777 - down 70 points. In the process, the index today ended its 11-day run with wherein the index had gained a whopping 2,343 points.

The Nifty closed at 5,208, down 2 points.

The market breadth was negative - out of 2,828 stocks traded, 1,609 declined, 1,166 advanced and 53 were unchanged today.

Index Movers

NTPC zoomed 4.3% to Rs 226. Tata Steel [Get Quote] soared 3% to Rs 865.

Cipla, Maruti [Get Quote] and Reliance Energy [Get Quote] surged around 2% each to Rs 189, Rs 1,041 and Rs 1,478, respectively.

Ambuja Cements and Bajaj Auto [Get Quote] rallied around 1.5% each to Rs 147 and Rs 2,580, respectively.

Hindustan Unilever, Reliance and Tata Motros were up over 1% each at Rs 223, Rs 2,423 and Rs 799, respectively.

And The Shakers

ONGC [Get Quote] and HDFC [Get Quote] plunged 3.8% each to Rs 986 and Rs 2,500, respectively.

ICICI Bank [Get Quote] dropped 2.5% to Rs 1,061. Wipro [Get Quote] and Hindalco [Get Quote] slipped around 2% each to Rs 461 and Rs 176, respectively.

Mahindra & Mahindra and Grasim [Get Quote] shed around 1.5% each at Rs 758 and Rs 3,590, respectively.

ITC, HDFC Bank and Reliance Communications [Get Quote] declined 1.3% each to Rs 185, Rs 1,404 and Rs 635, respectively.

Most Active Counter

Reliance Energy topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 463.70 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 242.30 crore), Reliance Capital [Get Quote] (Rs 231.50 crore), Unitech (Rs 186 crore) and DLF (Rs 175 crore).

Himachal Futuristic led the volume chart with trades of around 2.58 crore followed by Ispat Industries [Get Quote] (2.54 crore), Nagarjuna Fertilisers (2.45 crore), Tata Tele (1.67 crore) and Reliance Natural Resources [Get Quote] (1.66 crore).