After opening with a positive gap of 73 points at 15,577, the index could barely a tad higher to touch a high of 15,580. Profit-taking at higher levels saw the index soon slip into the negative zone.

Significant weakness in banking, metal and technology stocks saw the index slide to a low of 15,125 - down 455 points from the day's high. The Sensex recouped some losses but eventually ended with a loss of 292 points at 15,212.

The BSE Bankex and the Metal index dropped around 3.5% each to 7,437 and 12,661, respectively. The IT index slipped nearly 3% to 3,772.

The market breadth was fairly negative - out of 2,729 stocks traded, 1,556 declined and 1,100 advanced on Tuesday.

The NSE Nifty shed 68 points to settle at 4,552.

INDEX SHAKERS. . .

Tata Steel [Get Quote] slumped 5.7% to Rs 608. Maruti [Get Quote] tumbled over 5% to Rs 678.

Jaiprakash Associates [Get Quote] and Sterlite shed 4.5% each at Rs 189 and Rs 597, respectively.

ICICI Bank [Get Quote], HDFC [Get Quote] and Infosys [Get Quote] dropped around 4% each to Rs 738, Rs 2,467 and Rs 1,604, respectively.

Tata Power [Get Quote] and HDFC Bank slipped around 3.5% each to Rs 1,037 and Rs 1,264, respectively.

Bharti Airtel [Get Quote] and Tata Motors [Get Quote] declined around 2.5% each to Rs 823 and Rs 436, respectively.

SBI [Get Quote], Wipro [Get Quote], Ranbaxy [Get Quote], Satyam [Get Quote] and TCS [Get Quote] were down around 2% each.

. . .AND THE MOVERS

ITC advanced over 1% to Rs 195.

Grasim [Get Quote], Mahindra & Mahindra, Reliance and Hindustan Unilever were the other gainers today.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 296.50 crore followed by Reliance Capital [Get Quote] (Rs 252.35 crore), Infosys (Rs 185.80 crore), Reliance Natural Resources [Get Quote] (Rs 176.15 crore) and Larsen & Toubro (Rs 166.60 crore).

Landmark Projects led the volume chart with trades of around 2.54 crore shares followed by Reliance Natural Resources (1.71 crore), Chambal Fertilisers (1.61 crore), Nagarjuna Fertilisers (1.20 crore) and Kashyap Technologies (93.15 lakh).