After clocking a gain of 14 points to open at 5,876, the Sensex, on selective buying support touched an intra-day high of 5,895 in early deals.

The markets, however, soon eased in late morning deals following the commencement of selling in most of the sectors. By mid-noon deals the markets plunged deep into the red, as wide-spread selling across-the-board dragged the index below the 5,800-mark to an intra-day low of 5,782.

The Sensex, with a swing of 113 points during the intra-day trades, finally ended with a loss of 61 points at 5,801. The Nifty also ended with steep losses, and was down 1.29% or 24 points at 1,844.

While only six Sensex stocks advanced, 24 declined today. Advancing shares registered a volume of 13 lakh for Rs 60.79 crore, and declining shares accounted for a volume of 2.06 crore amounting to Rs 946.23 crore.

Heavweight, PSU and tech stocks buckled under selling pressure. Reliance plunged 2.20% (Rs 12) to close at Rs 552. HLL closed down a tad at Rs 152. ITC, however, clocked a per cent gain (Rs 10) to close at Rs 1,086.

SBI dropped 2% (Rs 13) to Rs 629. While BHEL shed 4.31% (Rs 28) to Rs 612, HPCL slipped 2.20% (Rs 11) to close at Rs 500. MTNL was down a per cent (Rs 2) at Rs 150.

Infosys shed some losses on buying support, but still ended down a per cent (Rs 33) at Rs 5,359. Wipro at Rs 1,593 (down Rs 24 or 1.51%) and Satyam at Rs 324 (down Rs 9 or 2.69%) also ended at lower levels.

Cement and auto majors, too, faltered sharply. Grasim slumped 2.51% (Rs 29) to Rs 1,143. While ACC dipped 2.24% (Rs 6) to Rs 270, Gujarat Ambuja ended off-lows with a loss of 2.14% (Rs 7) at Rs 320. L&T also ended weak with a loss of 1.74% (Rs 10) at Rs 592.

Tata Motors tumbled 3.52% (Rs 18) to close at Rs 488. While Bajaj lost 1.62% (Rs 15) to Rs 931, Hero Honda was down 1.24% (Rs 6) at Rs 489.

ONGC (down Rs 15 or 1.74% to Rs 850), Reliance Energy (down Rs 17 or 2.17% to Rs 762), HDFC (down Rs 13 or 2% to Rs 624), Tata Power (down Rs 6 or 1.46% to Rs 408), Tisco (down Rs 4 to Rs 391), Bharti (down Rs 4 or 2.10% to Rs 170) and Zee (down Rs 3 or 2% to Rs 138) ended with significant losses.

Hindalco, however, bucked the downtrend to end with a gain of 1.12% (Rs 14) at Rs 1,305. ICICI Bank also ended in the gainers list at Rs 300 - up Rs 8 or 2.62%.

Pharma stocks, however, largely finished with gains today. Ranbaxy (up Rs 28 or 2.72% to Rs 1,055) and Cipla (up Rs 8 to Rs 1,250) finished at higher levels. Dr. Reddy's, however, ended on a subdued note at Rs 905 - down Rs 12 or 1.28%.