Sensex steady; Tata Steel sheds 6%

The Sensex is now down 201 points at 8,690. 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.

Tata Steel has slumped 6% to Rs 162.

ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and ONGC have plunged around 4% each to Rs 315, Rs 850 and Rs 665, respectively.

Reliance Infrastructure has tumbled 3.5% to Rs 474. TCS, Reliance Communications and ACC have dropped 3% each to Rs 466, Rs 151 and Rs 524, respectively.

Bharti Airtel and Hindustan Unilever have shed 2.7% each at Rs 619 and Rs 247, respectively.

HDFC has slipped 2.5% to Rs 1,237. Infosys, Grasim and Jaiprakash Associates have declined 2.3% each to Rs 1,203, Rs 1,340 and Rs 65, respectively.

Mahindra & Mahindra has surged over 4% to Rs 323. Tata Motors has rallied 2.3% to Rs 153, and Maruti has gained 1.6% at Rs 689.

The market breadth is fairly negative - out of 2,198 stocks traded so far, 1,356 have declined, 752 have advanced and the rest are unchanged.