Sensex ends down 338pts, ICICI Bank drops 5%

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 64 points at 16,742, and moved up to a high of 16,754 in early deals.

Selling at higher levels saw the index slip into negative zone in late morning deals, which intensified in noon deals, and the index dropped to a low of 16,165 - a decline of nearly 590 points from the intra-day high.

Buying at lower levels saw the index recover around 250 points, and finally close with a loss of 338 points (2%) at 16,340.

The BSE Bankex was down over 4% at 9,057.

The market breadth was extremely negative - out of 2,737 scrips traded, over 2,190 declined today.

INDEX LOSERS....

ICICI Bank declined over 5% to Rs 972. Infosys and L&T declined over 3% each to Rs 1,420 and Rs 3,223, respectively.

Reliance slipped 2.7% to Rs 2,241.

ACC dropped over 5% to Rs 746. DLF and RCom were down 5% each at Rs 678 and Rs 514, respectively.

Cipla, ITC, Bharti and SBI also declined sharply today.

..... AND GAINERS

Hindalco gained over 5% to Rs 200. Maruti added nearly 3% at Rs 906.

HDFC added 2.5% at Rs 2,636. M&M, REL and Tata Motors also finished with gains today.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

Essar Oil was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 314 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 280 crore), RNRL (Rs 238 crore), ICICI Bank  (Rs 232 crore) and RPL (Rs 230 crore).