The Sensex opened 31 points higher at 17,404. Though it went a bit higher to 17,414, the higher levels could not be sustained. The index slipped into the negative zone, losing 143 points.

The Sensex recovered partially and finally ended with a loss of 34 points at 17,339.

The market breadth was decidedly negative - out of 2,764 stocks traded, 1,526 declined, 1,175 advanced and 63 were unchanged on Wednesday.

The NSE Nifty shed 8 points to end at 5,135.50.

Index shakers

Bhel was the biggest Sensex loser, declining 4.12% to Rs 1,783.75.

Bharti Airtel [Get Quote] declined 3.64% to Rs 815.80.

DLF and Larsen & Toubro tumbled around 2.5% and 2.4% to Rs 651 and Rs 2,986, respectively.

Ranbaxy [Get Quote] slipped 1.8% at Rs 466. Satyam [Get Quote] was down 1.5% to Rs 489, while Hindalco [Get Quote] declined 1.15% to Rs 180. ICICI Bank [Get Quote] was 1% lower at Rs 919 and Grasim [Get Quote] was down 0.86% to Rs 2,337.

NTPC and Cipla were both down 0.65% each to Rs 195 and Rs 214.

And the movers

TCS [Get Quote] was the biggest gainer in the index, up 3% at Rs 966. Mahindra & Mahindra gained 1.5% to Rs 674 and Infosys [Get Quote] was up 1.25% to Rs 1,843.

Hindustan Unilever, Jaiprakash Associates [Get Quote], Tata Steel [Get Quote], Reliance Industries [Get Quote], and Maruti [Get Quote] gained over 1% each.

Value and volume toppers

Reliance Capital [Get Quote] topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 240.15 crore followed by Idea Cellular [Get Quote] (Rs 205.60 crore), Cairn (Rs 204.46 crore), Bharti  (Rs 172.07 crore) and Tata Steel (Rs 167.23 crore).

Idea Cellular led the volume chart with trades of around 2.04 crore shares followed by Reliance Natural Resources [Get Quote] (1.02 crore), Cairn (0.74 crore), Reliance Petroleum [Get Quote] (0.63 crore) and Essar Oil [Get Quote] (0.35 crore).