The Sensex opened marginally (17 points) higher at 14,552, and advanced to a high of 14,591 in morning trades. However, profit taking at higher levels capped the upmove and the index slipped into the negative zone.The index, thereafter, exhibited lacklustre movement for major part of the trading day. The selling intensified in mid-noon trades and the index tumbled to a low of 14,234 - down 357 points from the day's high.The Sensex finally ended with a significant loss of 279 points at 14,256.The BSE Bankex and Oil & Gas indices slumped 3% each to 7595 and 7469, respectively. The Auto and Metal indices dropped around 2% each to 4868 and 10,414, respectively.The market breadth was fairly negative - out of 2,615 stocks traded so far, 1,706 declined, 842 advanced and 67 were unchanged today.ALL FALL DOWN...Tata Steel and HDFC plunged over 3.5% each to Rs 618 and Rs 1,831, respectively.Tata Motors, SBI, Reliance and ONGC shed 3.3% each to Rs 687, Rs 1,388, Rs 1,687 and Rs 864, respectively.Reliance Energy, BHEL, Ranbaxy and ICICI Bank dropped 3% each to Rs 533, Rs 1,340, Rs 380 and Rs 911, respectively.Maruti and HDFC Bank slipped 2.8% each to Rs 777 and Rs 1,127, respectively.NTPC and ITC declined over 2% each to Rs 156 and Rs 158, respectively.Gujarat Ambuja and ACC were down 1.7% each at Rs 111 and Rs 822, respectively. Bharti Airtel slipped 1.5% to Rs 825.Hindalco, however, surged nearly 2% to Rs 149, and Reliance Communications added 1% to Rs 516.MOST ACTIVE COUNTERSNitin Fire topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 417.60 crore followed by Wipro (Rs 274.30 crore), Reliance (Rs 165.25 crore), MIC Electronics (Rs 129.20 crore) and Reliance Communications (Rs 121 crore).IFCI led the volume chart with trades of around two crore shares followed by Reliance Natural (1.31 crore), Nitin Fire (85.55 lakh), Tata Teleservices (72 lakh) and G V Films (66.85 lakh).
