The Sensex on Thursday opened 21 points down at 5,738. The markets crashed for the third successive session due to sustained selling pressure. Though the index in the mid-morning deals inched up to touch a high of 5,764 on selective gains, it failed to hold on to its gains as selling re-emerged in most of the sectors to drag it back into the red.

The markets, however, witnessed a total sell-off towards the closing hours, as unabated selling pressure across-the-board dragged the index to an intra-day low of 5,634.

The Sensex ended with a loss of 109 points at 5,650. The Nifty shed 39 points to close at 1,805.

ITC dropped 2% (Rs 24) to Rs 1,148. Reliance, too, ended at lower levels at Rs 565 - down Rs 7 or 1.28%. HLL, which displayed weak trends for the last few sessions, opened firm today, and moved up 3.31% (Rs 5) to close at Rs 154.

SBI slipped 2.66% (Rs 16) to close at Rs 600. While HPCL lost 4% (Rs 21) to Rs 484, BHEL shed 3.24% (Rs 20) to Rs 588. MTNL was down 1.76% (Rs 2) at Rs 139.

Bajaj slumped sharply to close with a loss of 4.42% (Rs 40) at Rs 858. Hero Honda (down Rs 22 or 4.49% to Rs 472) and Tata Motors (down Rs 17 or 3.40% to Rs 486) also ended with steep losses.

Grasim (down Rs 36 or 3.13% to Rs 1,108), L&T (down Rs 19 or 3.31% to Rs 565) and Gujarat Ambuja (down Rs 14 or 4.61% to Rs 297) ended deep into the red. ACC was down 3.25% (Rs 9) at Rs 256.

HDFC (down Rs 14 or 2.25% to Rs 614), ICICI Bank (down Rs 11 or 3.75% to Rs 280), ONGC (down Rs 11 or 1.35% to Rs 829), Reliance Energy (down Rs 34 or 4.37% to Rs 736), Bharti Tele (down Rs 5 or 3.47% to Rs 150), Tata Power (down Rs 8 or 2% to Rs 395) and Tisco (down Rs 16 or 3.66% to Rs 418) witnessed relentless selling pressure. Zee was down 1.34% (Rs 2) at Rs 121.

Infosys, after a mixed outing, ended down a per cent (Rs 34) at Rs 4,854. While Wipro lost 1.13% (Rs 16) to Rs 1,438, Satyam closed down a rupee at Rs 293.

Ranbaxy dipped 2.65% (Rs 26) to Rs 952. Cipla ended lower by Rs 5 at Rs 1,223. Dr. Reddy's, however, held on to its gains, and added 1.70% (Rs 18) to close at Rs 1,065.