The Sensex opened 43 points lower at 14,681. After the initial weakness, the index rebounded into the positive zone and touched a high of 14,825. The index, however, could not hold gains and slipped back into the negative zone.

Considerable weakness in energy and metal stocks saw the index drop to a low of 14,601 - down 224 points from the day's high. The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 78 points at 14,646.

The market breadth was fairly negative - out of 2,676 stocks traded, 1,668 declined, 930 advanced and 78 were unchanged on Monday.

The BSE Oil & Gas index shed 2% at 9,997, and the Metal index dropped 1.8% to 12,364.

The NSE Nifty was down 38 points at 4,393.

INDEX SHAKERS. . .

Hindalco [Get Quote] and Grasim [Get Quote] plunged 4.5% each at Rs 130 and Rs 1,964, respectively.

Reliance Communications [Get Quote] shed 2.7% at Rs 412. ACC and Mahindra & Mahindrra dropped 2.5% each to Rs 594 and Rs 568, respectively.

Reliance and Tata Steel [Get Quote] slipped over 2% each to Rs 2,225 and Rs 603, respectively.

Jaiprakash Associates [Get Quote] and ITC were down nearly 2% each at Rs 169 and Rs 188, respectively.

. . .AND THE MOVERS

HDFC [Get Quote] surged over 3% to Rs 2,360. HDFC Bank rallied over 2% to Rs 1,200.

Satyam [Get Quote] moved up 1.8% to Rs 419. Larsen & Toubro, TCS [Get Quote] and Hindustan Unilever were up over 1% each at Rs 2,695, Rs 842 and Rs 242, respectively.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Reliance Capital [Get Quote] topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 266.30 crore shares followed by Vishal Info (Rs 231.80 crore), Reliance (Rs 210.35 crore), Reliance Natural Resources [Get Quote] (Rs 186.80 crore) and Larsen & Toubro (Rs 161.55 crore).

Reliance Natural Resources led the volume chart with trades of around 1.50 crore shares followed by Reliance Petroleum [Get Quote] (83.60 lakh), Vishal Info (75.35 lakh), Kashyap Technologies (62.20 lakh) and IFCI (53.60 lakh).