The Sensex on Thursday dropped 106 points to close at 4,818. Brokers said investors were looking forward to some market-friendly announcement by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who held a series of meetings with the representatives of financial institutions and FIIs in Mumbai.

The Nifty slipped below the 1,500-mark to close at 1,495 -- down 40 points.

The Sensex, which opened with a gain of 48 points at 4,972, soon breached the 5,000-mark to touch an intra-day high of 5,013. However, the markets kept losing its momentum following profit-taking in most of the sectors.

In mid-noon deals, the index plunged deep into the red, touching an intra-day low of 4,790.

While only three Sensex stocks advanced, 27 declined today.

Reliance shed 2.58% (Rs 11) to Rs 428. ITC dropped 2.38% (Rs 21) to Rs 879. HLL was down a rupee at Rs 136.

ONGC dipped 3.25% (Rs 21) to Rs 635. MTNL tumbled 5.80% (Rs 7) to Rs 116. HPCL lost 4.74% (Rs 16) to Rs 315. SBI was down Rs 3 at Rs 469.

BHEL ended with a modest gain of Rs 3 at Rs 447.

Infosys dropped 2% (Rs 109) to Rs 5,232. Wipro scaled down 4.48% (Rs 68) to Rs 1,460. Satyam lost 2.65% (Rs 8) to Rs 310.

Grasim plunged 5.60% (Rs 61) to Rs 1,024. Gujarat Ambuja declined 5.24% (Rs 16) to Rs 283. ACC lost 3% (Rs 8) to Rs 242.

Cipla slumped 5.53% (Rs 13) to Rs 226. While Dr. Reddy's lost 1.46% (Rs 12) to Rs 788, Ranbaxy was down 1.50% (Rs 15) at Rs 995.

Tata Motors crashed 4.39% (Rs 17) to Rs 375. Maruti shed 3.57% (Rs 14) to Rs 378. Bajaj and Hero Honda also ended at weaker levels.

Reliance Energy (down Rs 29 or 5.36% to Rs 509) and Tisco (down Rs 13 or 4.34% to Rs 298) also slipped deep into the red. Bharti dipped nearly 3% (Rs 4) to Rs 137.

ICICI Bank, however, added 1.74% (Rs 5) to Rs 266.