The Sensex opened almost flat at 9584, but touched a high of 9600 in early deals. Profit-taking at higher levels saw the index slip into the red, and a heavy bout of selling towards the closing bell saw the index plunge to a low of 9419 - down 181 points from the day's high.The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 1.4% (138 points) at 9445.The BSE FMCG and Teck indices slumped 1.5% each to 1644 and 2436, respectively. The BSE Auto, Metal and Oil & Gas indices also ended with significant losses at 4279, 6627 and 4490, respectively.The BSE Midcap and the Smallcap indices posted relatively smaller losses of 0.6% each at 4631 and 6172, respectively. Out of 2,563 stocks traded, 1,573 stocks declined, 935 moved up and the rest were unchanged.Ranbaxy was a stand-out gainer today - the stock rose to a high of Rs 398 before settling with a gain of 4% (Rs 15) at Rs 394.Nervousness among investors ahead of the results saw Reliance slip below the Rs 900-mark to touch a low of Rs 889. The stock ended 1.8% lower at Rs 894. Reliance Energy lost 2.7% at Rs 600.Infosys, which will be announcing results tomorrow (a market holiday), declined 1.8% to Rs 2,975. Satyam slipped 2% to Rs 731, and TCS was down 1.2% at Rs 1,672. Wipro, however, rebounded smartly from the day's low of Rs 449 to close almost flat at Rs 460.HLL shed 2.4% to Rs 188, and ITC was down 1.7% at Rs 143.HDFC declined 3.3% to Rs 1,221. SBI slipped 1.7% to Rs 910. HDFC Bank was down 1.2% at Rs 748.Hero Honda tumbled 3% to Rs 846. Bajaj Auto was down 1.8% at Rs 2,014. While Maruti declined 1.5% to Rs 651, Tata Motors was down 1% at Rs 636.Bharti, Tata Steel, L&T, ACC, Grasim, Tata Power, Dr. Reddy's and Cipla also declined sharply today.Gujarat Ambuja gained 1.7% to Rs 87.70. Late buying at the NTPC counter saw the stock move up 1.5% to Rs 116.Indo-Rama Textiles and Everest Kanto zoomed 17.4% each to Rs 63 and Rs 340, respectively. Aurobindo Pharma soared over 13% to Rs 553. Radhav Madhav surged over 12% to Rs 33.75. Shanti Gears, Rama Newsprint and Renuka Sugars gained around 10% each.Finolex Cables declined 5% to Rs 297. Apollo Tyres, Sterlite Industries, JB Chemicals, Indian Overseas Bank, IPCL, Punj Lloyd, VSNL, Jaiprakash Assoicates, Escorts, Container Corporation, Suzlon, Thermax, Bank of Baroda, GTL, Shyam Telecom, NDTV and Rane Brakes dropped in the range of 2-4% each.Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 413 crore followed by Infosys (Rs 177.02 crore), SBI (Rs 140.01 crore), Everest Kanto (Rs 106.53 crore) and Punj Lloyd (Rs 75.86 crore).Radhav Madhav topped the volume chart with a volume of around 74 lakh shares followed by Reliance (46.04 lakh shares), GV Films (45.40 lakh shares), ITC (44.24 lakh shares) and Everest Kanto (32.31 lakh shares).
