The Sensex opened flat at 8,942 - down two points. The index after marginally shaky start firmed up and rallied past the 9,000-mark to a high of 9,024.

The index however could not hold gains for long as profit-taking in banking and weakness in IT stocks dragged the index back into the negative territory. The index tumbled to a low of 8,802 - down 222 points from the day's high.

Selective buying at lower levels helped the index recover some losses at close. The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 80 points at 8,864.

The NSE Nifty ended at 2,757, down 20 points.

The BSE Bankex dropped 2% to 4,006, and the IT index shed 1.7% at 2,161. The Auto index however advanced 1% to 2,855.

The market breadth was marginally positive - out of 2,574 stocks traded, 1,331 advanced, 1,136 declined and the rest were unchanged on Tuesday.

INDEX SHAKERS...

TCS [Get Quote] slumped 4.3% to Rs 497. SBI [Get Quote] and Jaiprakash Associates [Get Quote] tumbled nearly tumbled nearly 4% each to Rs 950 and Rs 74, respectively.

HDFC Bank [Get Quote] slipped over 2% to Rs 825. Ranbaxy [Get Quote] and Reliance also shed 2% each at Rs 145 and Rs 1,300, respectively.

HDFC, DLF and Infosys [Get Quote] dropped 1.8% each to Rs 1,364, Rs 159 and Rs 1,266, respectively.

Larsen & Toubro declined 1.5% to Rs 617. ACC and Grasim [Get Quote] were down 1% each at Rs 557 and Rs 1,463, respectively.

...AND THE MOVERS

Tata Motors [Get Quote] rallied 3.5% to Rs 172. Hindalco [Get Quote] surged 2.3% to Rs 44.

ITC, Maruti [Get Quote] and NTPC moved up around 1.5% each to Rs 173, Rs 710 and Rs 174, respectively.

OTHER PROMINENT LOSERS...

Tata Teleservices [Get Quote] slumped nearly 10% to Rs 22. IVRCL Infrastructure, Rei Agro [Get Quote], India Cement, United Phosphorous, Aditya Birla Nuvo [Get Quote], Axis Bank, Indiabulls [Get Quote] Realestate, Marico, Piramal Healthcare, Punjab National Bank [Get Quote] and Bank of Baroda [Get Quote] dropped 4-6% each.

...AND THE GAINERS

Rolta zoomed 18% to Rs 54. Akruti City soared over 12% to Rs 1,578. Madras Cements [Get Quote], Nagarjuna Construction, Thermax, Biocon [Get Quote], Welspun Guj, Aban Offshore [Get Quote], GMR Infrastructure [Get Quote], Jai Corp [Get Quote], United Spirits [Get Quote] and Crompton Greaves [Get Quote] gained 5-8% each.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

Akruti City topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 459.22 crore followed by ICICI Bank [Get Quote] (Rs 304.11 crore), Reliance (Rs 252.64 crore), Educomp Solutions [Get Quote] (Rs 184.36 crore) and Everonn Systems (Rs 136.62 crore).

Rolta led the volume chart with trades of around 1.92 crore shares followed by Unitech (1.81 crore), Reliance Natural Resources [Get Quote] (1.66 crore), Cals Refineries (1.41 crore) and Suzlon [Get Quote] (1.32 crore).