The Sensex on Monday opened with a loss of nine points at 5,646. The index soon slipped below the 5,600-mark and touched an intra-day low of 5,506.

Though the Sensex pared losses towards the closing hours on renewed buying in Reliance, HLL, Infosys and ITC, it finally ended with a loss of 70 points at 5,585. The Nifty was down 29 points at 1,767.

While 10 Sensex stocks advanced, 20 declined today.

While heavyweight and select old economy stocks gained ground, PSU, cement and auto pivotals were battered today owing to sharp selling pressure.

Reliance recovered from its early losses to end with a small gain of Rs 2 at Rs 528. ITC and HLL also ended at higher levels with a per cent gain each at Rs 1,082 (up Rs 6) and Rs 143 (up Rs 2), respectively.

Zee shot up 4.27% (Rs 5) to close at Rs 133. While HDFC gained 1.79% (Rs 11) to Rs 605, HDFC Bank was up Rs 2 at Rs 377.

SBI dropped 3.76% (Rs 24) to close at Rs 618. BHEL ended 1.67% lower (Rs 10) at Rs 577. While HPCL dipped 4.39% (Rs 20) to Rs 440, MTNL dropped 3.81% (Rs 6) to Rs 143.

Grasim slumped 6.43% (Rs 79) to finish at Rs 1,157. L&T (down Rs 17 or 3% to Rs 550), Gujarat Ambuja (down Rs 9 or 2.78% to Rs 323) and ACC (down Rs 8 or 2.93% to Rs 272) also ended with steep losses.

Hero Honda lost 4.27% (Rs 21) to Rs 462. Tata Motors also ended weak with a loss of 1.50% (Rs 7) at Rs 466. Bajaj, however, bounced back from its lows to end with a small gain of Rs 4 at Rs 925.

Tech stocks largely finished with gains. Infosys attracted buying in its counter, and ended up a per cent (Rs 36) at Rs 5,183. While Wipro finished at higher levels with a gain of Rs 8 at Rs 1,552, Satyam dipped 3.35% (Rs 11) to Rs 310.

Hindalco at Rs 1,066 (down Rs 48 or 4.33%), ONGC at Rs 818 (down Rs 22 or 2.59%), Reliance Energy at Rs 715 (down Rs 10 or 1.35%), Tata Power at Rs 362 (down Rs 18 or 4.66%), Tisco at Rs 342 (down Rs 15 or 4.28%) and Bharti at Rs 167 (down Rs 3 or 1.86%) buckled under sustained selling pressure.

Cipla held ground through out the session, and moved up 2.20% (Rs 30) to Rs 1,398. While Ranbaxy lost 2.63% (Rs 28) to Rs 1,035, Dr. Reddy's closed down a tad at Rs 869.