The Sensex opened 70 points higher at 9,639. Fresh buying in early trades helped the index move up to a high of 9,706. The index, however, could not hold gains and slipped into red.
The selling intensified in late noon deals amid talks of a possibility of war with Pakistan. The index tumbled to a low of 9,295 - down 411 points from the day's high.
The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 240 points at 9,329.
The BSE IT and Realty indices dropped nearly 4% each to 2,149 and 2,201, respectively. The Bankex shed 3% at 5,211.
The market breadth was fairly negative - out of 2,532 stocks traded so far, 1,598 declined, 865 advanced and 69 were unchanged today.
INDEX SHAKERS...
Reliance Infrastructure and DLF slumped 6% each to Rs 542 and Rs 276, respectively.
Infosys and ICICI Bank plunged over 5% each to Rs 1,110 and Rs 418, respectively.
Mahindra & Mahindra tumbled 4.7% to Rs 266. Hindalco, Jaiprakash Associates, ONGC and BHEL dropped around 4% each to Rs 49, Rs 74, Rs 644 and Rs 1,300, respectively.
SBI and Sterlite shed around 3% each to Rs 1,244 and Rs 249, respectively.
Tata Steel and Larsen & Toubro declined 2.7% each to Rs 212 and Rs 744, respectively.
Tata Motors, Reliance and Wipro slipped around 2.5% each to Rs 156, Rs 1,212 and Rs 227, respectively.
Hindustan Unilever and ACC were down around 2% each at Rs 252 and Rs 457, respectively.
...AND THE MOVERS
Grasim and Maruti moved up 1.7% each to Rs 1,205 and Rs 511, respectively.
Ranbaxy advanced over 1% to Rs 219.
VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS
Bharti Airtel topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 194 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 187.25 crore), DLF (Rs 177.60 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs 177 crore) and Satyam (Rs 163.20 crore).
Reliance Natural Resources led the volume chart with trades of around two crore shares followed by Reliance Petroleum (1.73 crore), Unitech (1.54 crore), Suzlon (1.40 crore) and Satyam (1.17 crore).
