Sensex down 220pts; Rel Infra drops 6%

The Sensex is now down 221 points at 8,670. Earlier in the day, the index opened with a negative gap of 129 points at 8,763, and soon touched a low of 8,644 on the back of weak global cues.

Reliance Infrastructure and Tata Steel have slumped nearly 6% each to Rs 462 and Rs 162, respectively.

ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank have plunged around 4.5% each to Rs 313 and Rs 846, respectively.

Reliance Communications and ONGC have shed 4% each at Rs 149 and Rs 665, respectively.

TCS and Hindustan Unilever have dropped 3% each to Rs 465 and Rs 246, respectively.

ACC, Bharti Airtel, HDFC and Larsen & Toubro have slipped nearly 3% each to Rs 525, Rs 619, Rs 1,234 and Rs 595, respectively.

Mahindra & Mahindra has surged over 3% to Rs 320. Tata Motors has rallied 1.5% to Rs 152, and Maruti has gained 1% at Rs 685.

The market breadth is fairly negative - out of 2,259 stocks traded so far, 1,433 have declined, 725 have advanced and the rest are unchanged.