Sensex drops 196pts

The Sensex opened with a negative gap of 31 points at 8,693, which turned out to be the high for the day. Sustained, across-the-board selling saw the index crash to a low of 8,508 - down 216 points from the previous close. The Sensex finally closed with a loss of 196 points (2.24%) at 8,529.

ONGC dropped 3% (Rs 33) to Rs 1,039. Reliance declined 1.4% (Rs 11) to Rs 791. SBI slipped  2.3% (Rs 22) to Rs 925.

While HLL was down Rs 6 at Rs 175, ITC was down Rs 4 at Rs 128.

Infosys lost Rs 27 to Rs 2,616. While TCS declined Rs 44 to Rs 1,426, Wipro was down 3.6% (Rs 15) to Rs 390.

Bajaj dropped 3.3% (Rs 58) to Rs 1,724. BHEL dipped 2.8% (Rs 35) to Rs 1,225.

ICICI Bank declined 4.5% (Rs 25) to Rs 536. HDFC was down Rs 29 at Rs 1,002, and HDFC Bank dropped Rs 24 to Rs 684.

Dr. Reddy's bucked the trend, and moved up Rs 14 to Rs 923. Ranbaxy was up Rs 6 at 519.