The Sensex opened in the positive at 17,004 but soon slipped into the negative territory. The BSE-benchmark touched a low of 16,712, down 293 points from the day's high on intense selling.

The Sensex finally ended at 16,785, down 213 points. The NSE Nifty settled at 4,989, down 66 points.

ICICI Bank [Get Quote] was the chief dragger which attributed to 29 points on the Sensex, followed by Reliance (22 points) and SBI [Get Quote] (19 points).

The market breadth was fairly negative, out of 2,820 shares traded, 1,672 declined and 1,065 advanced on the BSE.

All the sectoral indices ended on a negative note. The BSE realty index dragged the market, down 4.5%. It was followed by bankex and metal stocks, down above 1.5% each.

INDEX SHAKERS...

Jaiprakash Associates [Get Quote] tumbled 4.5% to Rs 227 and Reliance Infrastructure slumped 4% to Rs 1,105, respectively.

DLF and Hindalco [Get Quote] dropped 3.5% each to Rs 366 and Rs 129, respectively.

Reliance Communications [Get Quote], Sterlite, ICICI Bank and SBI slipped 2% each.

The other prominent losers were Sun Pharma [Get Quote], Tata Steel [Get Quote], Tata Motors [Get Quote], Hero Honda, Bharti Airtel [Get Quote], HDFC Bank [Get Quote], Mahindra & Mahindra, ONGC [Get Quote] and TCS [Get Quote] were down 1-2% each.

...AND THE MOVERS

HDFC, ACC and Wipro [Get Quote] were the marginal gainers, below 0.5% each.