The bear-hug in the markets continued today after last week's 300-point loss and a recovery of 50 points on Friday (last week).The market was extremely volatility during the intra-day trades. After opening 20 points higher at 6,440, the index soon registered another 29 point gains to touch an early high of 6,469. The market slipped into the red, but recovered to remain range-bound thereafter till the early noon trades.The Sensex snapped gains in the mid-noon trades. Selling pressure gained momentum towards the late noon trades as sharp correction across-the-board saw the index slip below the 6,300-mark to touch an intra-day low of 6,287 - down 182 points from the intra-day high.The Sensex finally crashed by a whopping 1.74%, or 112 points, to close above the 6,300-mark at 6,308. The Nifty lost 33 points to close at 1,982.The market breadth, however, was positive with 1,555 gainers, 839 losers and 48 stocks remaining unchanged.Heavyweights, tech and banking stocks contributed to the downfall of the index.Reliance, with volumes of over 21.66 lakh, snapped gains in the noon trades, and ended 1.36% lower (Rs 7) at Rs 533. ITC shed 1.93% (Rs 25) to Rs 1,273. HLL, however, held on to its gains and added 1.28% (Rs 2) to Rs 143.Infosys plunged below the Rs 2,000 levels, and lost 2.77% (Rs 57) to Rs 1,994. While Wipro scaled down 3.12% (Rs 22) to Rs 678, Satyam dipped 3.49% (Rs 13) to Rs 374.SBI, on volumes of over 14.5 lakh, slipped from higher levels to close 2.52% lower (Rs 15) at Rs 600. While ICICI Bank declined 3.21% (Rs 11) to Rs 347, HDFC Bank was down a at Rs 489.ONGC was down a per cent (Rs 8) at Rs 784, and HPCL slipped 3.26% (Rs 13) to Rs 380.Pharma, auto and cement pivotals also eased on selling pressure.Ranbaxy crashed 3% (Rs 36) to Rs 1,164. While Cipla lost 3.40% (Rs 10) to Rs 282, Dr. Reddy's was down 2% (Rs 16) at Rs 794.Tata Motors slumped 2.52% (Rs 15) to Rs 600. While Maruti declined 3.62% (Rs 16) to Rs 424, Hero Honda closed down a notch at Rs 574. Bajaj, however, ended with a small gain of Rs 3 at Rs 1,097.Gujarat Ambuja slipped 2% (Rs 9) to Rs 418. While Grasim shed 1.59% (Rs 21) to Rs 1,273, ACC was down 1.51% (Rs 5) at Rs 345.Bharti was weak since the opening trades, and dropped nearly 4% (Rs 8) to Rs 203. While Tata Power slumped 4% (Rs 15) to Rs 354, Hindalco tumbled 1.80% (Rs 24) to Rs 1,300. BHEL, however, ended off-highs at Rs 740 - up Rs 3.The BSE IT index lost 2.52% or 64 points to close at 2,492, followed by BSE Teck at 1,652 (down 2.32% or 39 pts), BSE Bankex at 3,492 (down 2% or 75 pts), and BSE HC at 2,854 (down 1.73% or 50 pts), respectively.Mid-day Multimedia tumbled 7.44% (Rs 5) to Rs 61. While Shyam Telecom shed 6.30% to Rs 89, JK Corp lost 5.94% to Rs 45. Hindustan Construction and Himachal Futuristics slipped slightly over 5% each to Rs 345 and Rs 24, respectively.Select tech and bank stocks lost ground today. HCL Tech lost 4% (Rs 13) to Rs 312, and i-flex slipped 3.19% (Rs 21) to Rs 632. While Hexaware scaled down 2.86% at Rs 546, Aftek Info declined 2.18% to Rs 124. Hughes at Rs 527 (down 1.57%) and Polaris at Rs 155 (down 1.55%) also ended at weak levels.PNB shed 4.12% (Rs 17) to Rs 386, and J&K Bank lost 3.43% (Rs 13) to Rs 364. While BoI declined 2.42% to Rs 89, BoB was down 2% at Rs 217. Andhra Bank, Union Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and Oriental Bank also finished lower at Rs 83, Rs 105, Rs 73 and Rs 314, respectively.Select counters, however, clocked gains in a bearish market. Chambal Fertilisers and Chemicals soared 9.42% (Rs 2) to Rs 28. While Birla Corporation jumped 4.40% to Rs 176, Mirc Electronics gained 4.35% to Rs 25. Gujarat Narmada, FACT, BEML, Colgate, Hinduja TMT and RCG ended higher in a range of 3-4%.SAIL clocked a highest volume of over 95.98 lakh on the BSE, followed by Ispat (47.58 lakh), Chambal Fertilisers (31.87 lakh), Reliance (21.66 lakh) and NTPC (20.20 lakh), respectively.
