Backed by firm US cues the Sensex opened with a positive gap of 100 points at 15,714. Fresh buying, thereafter, saw the index rally to a high of 15,825 -- just 43 points shy of an all-time high.

Selling emerged in noon deals following weakness in the European markets as a result of which the index began to pare gains. Sustained selling saw the index slip into red to a low of 15,568 - down 257 points from the day's high.

The Sensex finally ended with a marginal loss of 10 points at 15,604. The NSE Nifty lost 11 points to close at 4,518.

The market breadth was negative - out of 2,761 stocks traded, 1,744 declined, 964 advanced and 53 were unchanged on Friday.

INDEX MOVERS...

ICICI Bank [Get Quote] surged 2.6% to Rs 907. HDFC Bank [Get Quote] has added 1.3% to Rs 1,229.

Larsen & Toubro was up nearly 1% at Rs 2,592.

AND THE SHAKERS....

NTPC and Maruti [Get Quote] plunged around 3% each to Rs 186 and Rs 866, respectively. ACC shed 2% to Rs 1,107.

Cipla and Bajaj Auto [Get Quote] slipped 1.7% each to Rs 172 and Rs 2,377, respectively.

Wipro [Get Quote] and Hindustan Unilever declined 1.5% each to Rs 450 and Rs 212, respectively.

Reliance Communications [Get Quote], SBI [Get Quote] and Grasim [Get Quote] were down 1.3% each to Rs 543, Rs 1,654 and Rs 3,224, respectively.

Mahindra & Mahindra and Bharti Airtel [Get Quote] were the other major losers.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Debutant Iwind Energy topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 360 crore followed by IDFC [Get Quote] (Rs 350 crore), India Cements [Get Quote] (Rs 222.60 crore), Reliance (Rs 139.50 crore) and India Infoline [Get Quote] (Rs 132.40 crore).

Iwind Energy led the volume chart with trades of around four crore shares followed by IDFC (2.73 crore), Ispat Industries [Get Quote] (2.41 crore), IFCI (1.46 crore) and IKF Technologies [Get Quote] (1.16 crore).