Sensex ends down over 600pts, RIL drops 5%

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 60 points at 18,199, which also turned out to be the high for the day.

The index plunged to a low of 17,492 in late noon deals - an intra-day decline of nearly 650 points from the previous close.

The Sensex finally closed with a loss of over 600 points (3.4%) at 17,527.

The NSE Nifty closed with a loss of 190 points (3.6%) at 5,133.

The BSE market breadth was extremely negative - out of 2,849 scrips traded, over 2,000 declined today.

INDEX LOSERS...

Reliance declined nearly 5% to Rs 2,425.

ICICI Bank dropped over 4% to Rs 1,105. L&T slipped nearly 4% to Rs 3,630. Bharti was down 4% at Rs 862.

Infosys declined 2% to Rs 1,481. Satyam dropped 4% to Rs 391. TCS and Wipro also closed on a weak note today.

...AND THE SOLE GAINER

ACC moved up 1% to Rs 773.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

RNRL was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 569 crore followed by REL (Rs 338 crore), RPL (Rs 296 crore), Reliance (Rs 243 crore) and Fututre Capital (Rs 211 crore).