Another choppy day. . .Sensex slips 257 points

Following Wednesday's 435-points fall, the Sensex on Thursday opened 21 points lower at 14,503. Constant bouts of buying and selling in the markets saw the index to gyrate between the zones.

The index touched a high of 14,613 in early noon trades. However the index failed to retain its firmness and plunged to a low of 14,188, owing to heavy selling in the realty and metal stocks for the second consecutive day.

Extreme volatility was witnessed throughout the day and the Sensex finally ended at 14,265, down 257 points. The NSE Nifty closed at 4,251, down 105 points.

The BSE Realty index tumbled 6% to 3,190. The Metal index shed 5% to 10,738.

Capital Goods and the Power indices declined over 3.5% each.

The market breadth was extremely negative -- out of 2,684 shares traded, 2,095 declined, 533 advanced and 56 were unchanged on the BSE.

INDEX SHAKERS...

ACC tumbled 8% to Rs 758.

Jaiprakash Associates, Tata Steel and Hindalco slumped over 6.5% each to Rs 191, Rs 389 and Rs 87, respectively.

Grasim declined 6% to Rs 2,174. NTPC shed 5% to Rs 202.

ONGC, Reliance Infrastructure, Larsen & Toubro, Reliance Communications and DLF dropped 3-4% each.

...AND THE MOVERS

SBI advanced 2% to Rs 1,702.

Sun Pharma and Tata Motors added 1.5% each to Rs 1,316 and Rs 328, respectively.