The Sensex rebounded into the positive zone for a brief while and touched a high of 14,089. However, the index soon slipped back into red owing to heavy selling in the markets. The index has tumbled to the day's low levels and is now down 227 points down at 13,834.
The BSE FMGC and the Auto indices are down 1.5% at 2,078 and 4,517, respectively.
The market breadth remains extremely positive - out of 2,673 shares traded, 2,296 have advanced, 336 have declined and 41 are unchanged so far on the BSE.
ONGC has soared 8% to Rs 1,072. Ranbaxy has zoomed 6% to Rs 231. Reliance Communications has added 5% to Rs 329.
NTPC has gained 4% each at Rs 216 and Jaiprakash Associates is up 2.5% at Rs 177.
Maruti Suzuki has plunged 6.5% to Rs 976. Larsen & Toubro has dropped 5% to Rs 1,290. HDFC has slipped 4% to Rs 2,117 .
Wipro, Hindalco and Sun Pharma have declined 3% each.