Sensex ends at low

The Sensex opened with a negative gap of over 100 points at 14,557, which also turned out to be the high for the day. Sustained selling in heavyweights like Reliance saw the index drop to a low of 14,265 - an intra-day swing of over 290 points. The Sensex finally closed with a loss of 338 points (2.31%) at 14,324.

All the sectoral indices closed in the red. The BSE Oil & Gas and Power indices declined 3%. Market breadth was extremely bearish - out of over 2,710 scrips traded, over 1,785 declined.

Reliance declined over 4% to Rs 1,998. Bharti and Reliance Infra also dropped over 4% each to Rs 776 and Rs 992, respectively.

ONGC slipped nearly 4% to Rs 1,035. Tata Power and DLF were also down over 3% each at Rs 1,012 and Rs 485, respectively.

M&M, BHEL, NTPC, Maruti, HDFC, ICICI Bank, L&T and SBI also declined.

Tata Motors gained over 1% at Rs 424. Ranbaxy was up marginally at Rs 459 crore.

Total market turnover (BSE+NSE) was Rs 65,923 crore. Reliance was the most active counter on the BSE with a turnover of Rs 479 crore followed by Reliance Capital (Rs 241 crore) and ICICI Bank (Rs 166 crore).