The index could not hold the gains and fell sharply in late noon deals to touch a day's low of 15,526 - down 445 points from day's high.
The Sensex finally ended with loss of 197 points at 15,572.
The market breadth was negative - out of 2,717 stocks traded, 1,524 declined, 1,125 advanced and 68 were unchanged today.
The NSE Nifty ended with a loss of 49 points at 4,628.
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INDEX SHAKERS...
Wipro tumbled 4.4% to Rs 505. ITC plunged 4.1% to Rs 213.
Ranbaxy and Hindalco lost 3.5% to Rs 507 and Rs 176, respectively. DLF was down 3.4% to Rs 520.
Reliance Infrastructure slipped 2.7% at Rs 1,100. TCS and Bharti declined 2.3% each to Rs 960 and Rs 802, respectively.
Jaiprakash Associated dropped 2.2% at Rs 201, while Tata Steel dipped 2.1% to Rs 823.
HDFC and ACC declined 1.9% each to Rs 2,347 and Rs 628, respectively.
BHEL and Cipla were down 1.6% each at Rs 1,421 and Rs 207, respectively.
ONGC shed 1.5% to Rs 938. Larsen & Toubro and SBI dropped 1.4% each at Rs 2,682 and Rs 1,335, respectively.
ICICI Bank, Maruti and HUL were the other major losers.
...AND THE MOVERS
Mahindra & Mahindra gained 3.5% to Rs 582. Tata Motors advanced 1.4% to Rs 540.
Grasim and Infosys added 0.7% each at Rs 2,263 and Rs 1,993, respectively.
MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS
Reliance led the value chart with a turnover of Rs 385.35 crore followed by Reliance Capital (Rs 214.38 crore), Cairn India (Rs 208.63 crore), Gokul Refoils (Rs 197.32 crore) and Anu's Laboratories (Rs 175.14 crore).
IFCI topped the volume chart with trades of around 1.63 crore shares followed by SpiceJet (1.16 crore), Chambal Fertilisers (1 crore), Gokul Refoils (97 lakh) and Ispat Industries (90 lakh).