The Sensex opened with a significant positive gap of 300 points at 10,931 in line with other Asian markets amid the backdrop of the US elections. World markets displayed strength this morning following a clear mandate in the US poll.

In the US, the Dow and the Nasdaq finished with gains of over 3% each on Tuesday. On Wednesday - the Nikkei rallied 4.5%. The Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite surged over 3% each.

The NSE Nifty ended at 2,995, down 147 points.

The Straits Times and Seoul Composite indices moved up over 2% each.

Back home, The Sensex touched a high of 10,945 in opening trades, but soon pared gains and slipped into red. Aggressive selling, especially in Reliance, forced the index slip into red. Selling pressure intensified towards the end, and the Sensex tumbled to a low of 10,052 - down 893 points. The index finally ended with a loss of 511 points at 10,120.

The BSE Oil & Gas index plunged 9.5% to 6,112. The Metal index dropped nearly 7% to 5,452.

The market breadth was negative - out of 2,638 stocks traded, 1,566 declined, 998 advanced and the rest were unchanged on Wednesday.

INDEX SHAKERS...

Reliance slumped almost 13% to Rs 1,269. Tata Steel [Get Quote] and Jaiprakash Associates [Get Quote] plunged 10% each to Rs 216 and Rs 81, respectively.

Reliance Communications [Get Quote] tumbled 9.5% to Rs 227. DLF and HDFC [Get Quote] dropped nearly 9% each to Rs 265 and Rs 1,751, respectively.

Grasim [Get Quote], Sterlite and ACC slipped over 7% each to Rs 1,049, Rs 268 and Rs 471, respectively.

Tata Motors [Get Quote] and Larsen & Toubro shed 6.5% each at Rs 181 and Rs 865, respectively.

Mahindra & Mahindra declined 6% to Rs 376. Bharti Airtel [Get Quote], Hindalco [Get Quote] and Reliance Infrastructure were down over 4% each to Rs 685, Rs 61 and Rs 520, respectively.

...AND THE MOVERS

Wipro [Get Quote] surged 2.7% to Rs 270. Satyam [Get Quote] and Maruti [Get Quote] were the only other gainers today.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 552 crore followed by ICICI Bank [Get Quote] (Rs 275.20 crore), SBI [Get Quote] (Rs 239.50 crore), Reliance Capital [Get Quote] (Rs 222.70 crore) and Suzlon Energy [Get Quote] (Rs 216.30 crore).

GVK Power led the volume chart with a turnover of 3.70 crore shares followed by Suzlon Energy (3.46 crore), Reliance Natural Resources [Get Quote] (1.76 crore), IFCI (1.30 crore) and Reliance Petroleum [Get Quote] (1.20 crore).