Sensex ends down 278pts; Hindalco drops 8%

The index, however, soon slipped deeper into red and touched a low of 14,163 - down 408 points from its previous close. Selective buying at lower levels helped the index recover some of its losses.

The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 278 points at 14,293.

The market breadth was extremely negative - out of 2,697 stocks traded, 2,222 declined, 425 advanced and 50 were unchanged today.

The NSE Nifty shed 81 points and ended at 4,266.

INDEX SHAKERS...

Jaiprakash Associates and Hindalco slumped 8% each to Rs 153 and Rs 148, respectively.

Larsen & Toubro tumbled 6.5% to Rs 2,396. Maruti and Ranbaxy plunged 5.5% each to Rs 688 and Rs 513, respectively.

Reliance Infrastructure and Mahindra & Mahindra shed over 4.5% each at Rs 917 and Rs 549, respectively.

Tata Steel slipped over 4% to Rs 746. Reliance and SBI dropped 3.5% each to Rs 2,022 and Rs 1,205, respectively.

ACC and BHEL slipped over 3% each to Rs 606 and Rs 1,361, respectively.

DLF and ICICI Bank declined around 2% each to Rs 446 and Rs 721, respectively.

...AND THE MOVERS

ONGC surged 2.5% to Rs 887. HDFC advanced 1.4% to Rs 2,215.

Wipro, Infosys and Satyam were up over 1% each at Rs 480, Rs 1,848 and Rs 460, respectively.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Reliance Capital topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 354.50 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 343.50 crore), Reliance Petroleum (Rs 239 crore), Larsen & Toubro (Rs 191.75 crore) and Anu Labs (Rs 180 crore).

Reliance Petroleum led the volume chart with trades of around 1.42 crore shares followed by Reliance Natural Resources (1.39 crore), IFCI (1.07 crore), Chambal Fertilisers (1.05 crore) and Ispat Industries (82.77 lakh).