The Sensex opened 75 points lower at 15,018. The index could barely touch a high of 15,033, before slipping deeper into red.

Unabated selling in realty, financial and capital goods stocks saw the index slide to a low of 14,687 - down 406 points from the previous close. The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 369 points at 14,724.

The BSE Realty index slumped 8% (447 points) to 5,164. The Bankex tanked 5% (368 points) to 6,903, and the Capital Goods index shed 3.7% (468 points) at 12,139.

The market breadth was significantly negative - out of 2,730 stocks traded, 1,849 declined, 812 advanced and 69 were unchanged today.

The NSE Nifty dropped 98 points to 4,431.

REALTY SLUMPS. . .

DLF slumped 8.7% to Rs 501. Jaiprakash Associates [Get Quote] and Reliance Infrastructure plunged 7.7% each to Rs 172 and Rs 985, respectively.

Indiabulls Real Estate [Get Quote] tumbled nearly 14% to Rs 304. Akruti City, Anant Raj, HDIL, Omaxe, Orbit Corporation [Get Quote], Parsvnath, Peninsula Land [Get Quote] and Unitech dropped 4-7% each.

FINANCIAL'S TANK. . .

SBI [Get Quote] plunged over 6% to Rs 1,458. ICICI Bank [Get Quote] and HDFC [Get Quote] tumbled over 5% each to Rs 673 and Rs 2,288, respectively. HDFC Bank shed 3.5% at Rs 1,175.

Among non-index stocks - Allahabad Bank [Get Quote], Axis Bank, Bank of India, Canara Bank [Get Quote], Bank of Baroda [Get Quote], Federal Bank [Get Quote], IDBI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank [Get Quote], IndusInd Bank [Get Quote], Kotak Bank, Oriental Bank [Get Quote], Punjab National Bank [Get Quote], Union Bank and Yes Bank [Get Quote] declined 3-8% each.

OTHER INDEX SHAKERS. . .

Larsen & Toubro dropped nearly 5% to Rs 2,661, and BHEL shed 4.5% at Rs 1,708.

Reliance Communications [Get Quote] tumbled 3.7% to Rs 424. Maruti [Get Quote], ACC and Reliance slipped nearly 3% each to Rs 651, Rs 610 and Rs 2,275, respectively.

Hindalco [Get Quote] and NTPC declined over 2.5% each to Rs 136 and Rs 182, respectively.

Hindustan Unilever, ITC and Mahindra & Mahindra were down 2% each at Rs 239, Rs 191 and Rs 583, respectively.

IT MOVES UP. . .

Infosys [Get Quote] led the gains in the technology pack with an upmover of 4% at Rs 1,689. Satyam [Get Quote] added 1.4% to Rs 412. Non-index gainers included stocks like HCL Technologies [Get Quote], i-flex, MphasiS and Patni Computers up 1-5% each.

OTHER MOVERS. . .

Tata Power [Get Quote] gained 1.6% at Rs 1,035. Sterlite and Tata Steel [Get Quote] were up around 1% each at Rs 620 and Rs 616, respectively.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

Reliance Capital [Get Quote] topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 266.30 crore followed by Vishal Info (Rs 231.70 crore), Reliance (Rs 210.30 crore), Reliance Natural Resources [Get Quote] (Rs 186.80 crore) and Larsen & Toubro (Rs 161.50 crore).

Reliance Natural Resources led the volume chart with trades of around 1.87 crore shares followed by Vishal Info (92.35 lakh), IDFC [Get Quote] (84 lakh), Landmark Projects (80.10 lakh) and IFCI (77.40 lakh).