Sensex crashes 121 points at close

The Sensex opened on a flat note at 6,656. After moving with steady losses in the first half, a wave of selling in late noon trades saw the index slump below the 6,550-mark to touch a low of 6,520.

The Sensex finally settled with a drop of 1.82% (121 pts) at 6,535. The Nifty, too, reported a sharp loss of 35 points to end lower at 2,062.

SBI crashed 4% (Rs 29) to Rs 693. While ICICI Bank slumped 3.28% (Rs 13) to Rs 395, HDFC Bank declined 1.67% (Rs 9) to Rs 551.

Reliance dropped 2.70% (Rs 15) to Rs 544. While ONGC was down a per cent (Rs 9) at Rs 894, ITC tumbled 1.74% (Rs 22) to Rs 1,274.

Infosys, after a mixed outing, ended down a per cent (Rs 14) at Rs 2,223. While Satyam shed 1.91% (Rs 8) to Rs 398, Wipro lost 1.45% (Rs 10) to Rs 675.

Grasim slipped 1.23% (Rs 15) to Rs 1,245. While Gujarat Ambuja lost 2% (Rs 9) to Rs 409, ACC was down a per cent (Rs 3) at Rs 358.

Tata Motors dropped 3.74% (Rs 17) to Rs 433.

Other auto majors, too, ended at lower levels.

Cipla declined 3.77% (Rs 10) to Rs 264. While Ranbaxy was down Rs 4 at Rs 1,069, Dr. Reddy's added 1.27% (Rs 9) to Rs 731.

Hindalco (down Rs 46 or 3.35% to Rs 1,331), BHEL (down Rs 15 or 1.85% to Rs 780), HDFC (down Rs 14 or 1.88% to Rs 739), Tata Power (down Rs 17 or 4.51% to Rs 360) and Tisco (down Rs 14 or 3.16% to Rs 417) ended with steep losses.

Bharti and HLL, however, ended marginally higher at Rs 212 and Rs 131, respectively.