Sensex ends below 9,000-mark, down 354pts

The Sensex opened with a significant negative gap of 9,084 - down 207 points - on the back of negative cues from the US markets. The index languished in the negative zone throughout the day amid some volatility.

At first, the index recovered partially and touched a high of 9,169, only to fall back sharply lower to 8,872. The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 354 points at 8,937.

The BSE TECk index shed 5% at 1,935. The Power, Bankex, PSU and Metal indices shed around 4.5% each at 1,572, 4,732, 4,532 and 4,516, respectively.

The market breadth was fairly negative - out of 2,566 stocks traded, 1,830 declined, 662 advanced and the rest were unchanged today.

INDEX SHAKERS...

Wipro slumped nearly 9% to Rs 230. NTPC plunged almost 8% to Rs 139.

ACC and TCS tumbled around 7% each to Rs 405 and Rs 483, respectively.

ICICI Bank and Maruti shed 6.7% each at Rs 361 and Rs 513, respectively.

Bharti Airtel and Jaiprakash Associates dropped 6.3% each to Rs 623 and Rs 68, respectively.

Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Power slipped nearly 6% each to Rs 300 and Rs 683, respectively.

HDFC and SBI declined over 5% each to Rs 1,419 and Rs 1,108, respectively.

ONGC, Reliance Communications and Grasim shed around 4.5% each at Rs 668, Rs 210 and Rs 976, respectively.

Infosys, Sterlite and Satyam were down around 4% each at Rs 1,181, Rs 218 and Rs 242, respectively.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 346 crore followed by Reliance Capital (Rs 137.50 crore), SBI (Rs 133.15 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 120.10 crore) and Reliance Infrastructure (Rs 117.70 crore).

GVK Power led the volume chart with trades of around 1.61 crore shares followed by Suzlon (1.03 crore), Unitech (72.10 lakh), SAIL (66.15 lakh) and Reliance Natural Resources (63.50 lakh).