The Sensex opened with a steady gain of five points at 6,069, and marginally inched up to touch a high of 6,072.

The markets turned weak thereafter as profit-taking emerged in most of the sectors which saw the index slip below the 6,000 levels in the opening session.

Though the sentiment was bearish till early noon deals, the markets witnessed a total sell-off towards the closing hours, as across the board selling dragged the index to a low of 5,914.

The Sensex finally signed off the last day of the trading week with a huge loss of 118 points at 5,946.

The Nifty lost 39 points to close at 1,905.

ITC and HLL ended at lower levels at Rs 1,121 (down Rs 11) and Rs 206 (down Rs 2), respectively. Reliance, however, clocked a per cent gain (Rs 3) to Rs 580 in a weak market.

SBI (down Rs 24 or 3.69%% to Rs 636), BHEL (down Rs 4 or 2% to Rs 558), HPCL (down Rs 11 or 2.41% to Rs 435) and MTNL (down Rs 4 or 3% to Rs 141) ended with losses.

Gujarat Ambuja lost 4.40% (Rs 14) to Rs 300.

Grasim slumped 2.61% (Rs 31) to Rs 1,143. While L&T plunged 5.71% (Rs 32) to Rs 528, ACC dropped 4.65% (Rs 12) to Rs 247.

Infosys remained weak throughout the session, and was down a per cent (Rs 33) at Rs 5,520. Satyam declined 6.39% (Rs 22) to Rs 323. Wipro, however, on a late bout of buying, gained 1.42% (Rs 24) to close at Rs 1,719.

Bajaj lost 1.61% (Rs 17) at Rs 1,029. Tata Motors closed down a rupee at Rs 488. Hero Honda, however, held gains on buying support, and added 1.58% (Rs 7) to Rs 463.

Ranbaxy lost 3% (Rs 33) to Rs 1,086. Dr. Reddy's was marginally down Rs 3 at Rs 1,345. Cipla, however, was up Rs 4 at Rs 1,332.

Hindalco emerged as a major loser, and the counter crashed 6.63% (Rs 98) to Rs 1,375. While ICICI Bank shed 5% (Rs 15) to Rs 285, ONGC dipped 1.63% (Rs 14) to Rs 824. Zee fell 3% (Rs 5) to Rs 155.

While BSES slipped 3.40% (Rs 18) to Rs 526, Bharti Tele shed 5.34% (Rs 6) to Rs 113. Tisco at Rs 436 (down Rs 7 or 1.52%) and Zee at Rs 156 (down Rs 5 or 3%) also declined on selling pressure.

HDFC closed with a marginal loss of Rs 4 at Rs 641.

TV Today, which got listed on the BSE and NSE on Friday, spurted on strong buying support to touch an intra-day high of Rs 225. The counter, however, slipped on profit-taking to a low of Rs 179, and finally ended at Rs 181 on the BSE.