Unabated selling in the banking, metal and capital goods stocks saw the index tumble to a low of 16,300 - down 349 points from its previous close.
The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 301 points at 16,348.
The market breadth was negative - out of 2,758 stocks traded, 667 advanced, 2,043 declined and 48 were unchanged today.
The NSE Nifty settled with a loss of 71 points at 4,875.
INDEX SHAKERS...
Jaiprakash Associates tumbled 5.6% to Rs 224, while Ambuja Cements plunged 5.4% to Rs 97.
BHEL and Reliance Communications declined over 5% each to Rs 1,656 and Rs 543, respectively.
ICICI Bank slipped 4.3% to Rs 827. HDFC was trading at Rs 2,573 - down 3.9%.
Maruti shed 3.8% to Rs 760. ITC was down 2.7% to Rs 206.
Grasim dropped 3.5% to Rs 2,209. Hindalco, Larsen & Toubro and Reliance Infrastructure declined over 3.3% each to Rs 186, Rs 2,750 and Rs 1,249, respectively.
Tata Steel dipped 2.4% to Rs 875. SBI and Cipla dropped over 2.2% to Rs 1,538 and Rs 199, respectively.
Tata Motors was down 2.1% to Rs 624. Hindustan Unilever and ACC lost around 2% each to Rs 231 and Rs 655, respectively.
DLF, HDFC Bank and Mahindra & Mahindra were the other major losers.
...AND THE MOVERS
Infosys surged 3.3% to Rs 1,886. Bharti Airtel gained 3.1% at Rs 863.
TCS advanced 2.7% to Rs 959.
MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS
Cairn India led the value chart with a turnover of Rs 180.52 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 148.18 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs 145.46 crore), Bajaj Auto (144.40 crore) and Reliance Power (Rs 142.14 crore).
Ispat Industries topped the volume chart with trades of around 1.70 crore shares followed by IFCI (1.11 crore), Aishwarya Telecom (86 lakh), Spice Telecom (80 lakh) and Reliance Natural Resources (65 lakh).
