The Sensex opened with a bang at 15,452 -- up 144 points from its previous close on the back of positive cues from the world markets. Fresh buying in morning trades saw the index rally to a high of 15,542.

However, profit taking at higher levels saw the index pare gains as the day progressed. Negative signals from the overseas markets, weak opening for the European markets coupled with a steep fall in Dow futures, led to some nervousness in our markets.

The selling pressure was so intense that the Sensex tumbled all the way into negative zone to a low of 15,062 -- down 390 points from the day's high. The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 208 points at 15,100. NSE Nifty ended at 4,403, down 59 points.

The BSE Oil & Gas index dropped 2% to 7891. The FMCG and IT index slipped over 1.5% each to 1920 and 4734, respectively. The Bankex and the Realty index were down over 1% each.

The market breadth, which was extremely bullish till noon, changed to fairly negative at the closing bell. Out of 2,670 stocks traded, 1,611 declined, 1,011 advanced and 48 were unchanged on Thursday.

Index Shakers...

Hindalco [Get Quote] shed 3.6% to Rs 156. SBI [Get Quote] and Reliance Energy [Get Quote] plunged over 3% each to Rs 1,650 and Rs 758, respectively.

Ranbaxy [Get Quote], Satyam [Get Quote], Grasim [Get Quote] and ONGC [Get Quote] dropped around 2.5% each to Rs 372, Rs 467, Rs 2,912 and Rs 866, respectively.

ACC, HDFC [Get Quote] and ITC tumbled over 2% each to Rs 1,001, Rs 2,020 and Rs 164, respectively.

Bharti Airtel [Get Quote] and Reliance slipped 1.8% each to Rs 869 and Rs 1,842, respectively. Larsen & Toubro was down 1.7% to Rs 2,450.

Infosys [Get Quote], Ambuja Cements and Reliance Communications [Get Quote] declined around 1.5% each to Rs 1,936, Rs 128 and Rs 537, respectively.

TCS [Get Quote], Maruti [Get Quote] and HDFC Bank were down around 1% each at Rs 1,141, Rs 829 and Rs 1,160, respectively.

...And The Movers

BHEL and Dr Reddy's advanced 1.3% each to Rs 1,734 and Rs 638, respectively. Cipla moved up nearly 1% to Rs 188.

Most Active Counters

Debutant Omaxe topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 443 crore followed by Orbit Corporation [Get Quote] (Rs 341.60 crore), Reliance (Rs 198.20 crore), SBI (Rs 98.70 crore) and ICICI Bank [Get Quote] (Rs 93 crore).

IKF Technologies [Get Quote] led the volume chart with trades of around 1.54 crore shares followed by IFCI (1.32 crore), Reliance Natural [Get Quote] (1.24 crore), Omaxe (1.21 crore) and Nagarjuna Fert (1.08 crore).