The Sensex opened 75 points lower at 15,018. The index could barely touch a high of 15,033, before slipping deeper into red.
Unabated selling in realty, financial and capital goods stocks saw the index slide to a low of 14,687 - down 406 points from the previous close. The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 369 points at 14,724.
The BSE Realty index slumped 8% (447 points) to 5,164. The Bankex tanked 5% (368 points) to 6,903, and the Capital Goods index shed 3.7% (468 points) at 12,139.
The market breadth was significantly negative - out of 2,730 stocks traded, 1,849 declined, 812 advanced and 69 were unchanged today.
The NSE Nifty dropped 98 points to 4,431.
DLF slumped 8.7% to Rs 501. Jaiprakash Associates and Reliance Infrastructure plunged 7.7% each to Rs 172 and Rs 985, respectively.
Indiabulls Real Estate tumbled nearly 14% to Rs 304. Akruti City, Anant Raj, HDIL, Omaxe, Orbit Corporation, Parsvnath, Peninsula Land and Unitech dropped 4-7% each.
SBI plunged over 6% to Rs 1,458. ICICI Bank and HDFC tumbled over 5% each to Rs 673 and Rs 2,288, respectively. HDFC Bank shed 3.5% at Rs 1,175.
Allahabad Bank, Axis Bank, Bank of India, Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda, Federal Bank, IDBI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, IndusInd Bank, Kotak Bank, Oriental Bank, Punjab National Bank, Union Bank and Yes Bank declined 3-8% each.
Larsen & Toubro dropped nearly 5% to Rs 2,661, and BHEL shed 4.5% at Rs 1,708.
Reliance Communications tumbled 3.7% to Rs 424. Maruti, ACC and Reliance slipped nearly 3% each to Rs 651, Rs 610 and Rs 2,275, respectively.
Hindalco and NTPC declined over 2.5% each to Rs 136 and Rs 182, respectively.
Hindustan Unilever, ITC and Mahindra & Mahindra were down 2% each at Rs 239, Rs 191 and Rs 583, respectively.
Infosys led the gains in the technology pack with an upmover of 4% at Rs 1,689. Satyam added 1.4% to Rs 412. Non-index gainers included stocks like HCL Technologies, i-flex, MphasiS and Patni Computers up 1-5% each.
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