Sensex ends at 9957, down 256pts

The Sensex opened with a negative gap of 125 points at 10,088, and then soon tumbled to a low of 9885 - down 328 points from its previous close.

The index tried hard to recover, but could only manage to touch a high of 10,193. A fresh round of heavy selling towards the close saw the index tumble back to lower levels and finish with a loss of 2.5% (256 points) at 9957.