The Sensex opened 60 points lower at 9,559 amid negative cues from the other Asian markets which were down around 2% each. The index attempted a recovery in early noon trades, but could only manage to touch a high of 9,580.

A second round of selling in technology and energy shares saw the index drift deeper into red to a low of 9,446. The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 153 points at 9,466.

The NSE Nifty ended at 2893, down 33 points.

The BSE IT index shed 2.5% at 2,171, and the Oil & Gas index dropped nearly 2% to 6,410.

The market breadth was marginally positive - out of 2,511 stocks traded, 1,311 advanced and 1,089 declined on Thursday.

INDEX SHAKERS...

Jaiprakash Associates [Get Quote] slumped 4.8% to Rs 73. Ranbaxy [Get Quote] tumbled nearly 4% to Rs 213.

Bharti Airtel [Get Quote] plunged 3.5% to Rs 650. Infosys [Get Quote] and ICICI Bank [Get Quote] shed 3.3% each at Rs 1,258 and Rs 421, respectively.

Maruti [Get Quote] dropped 3% to Rs 614. Tata Steel [Get Quote], BHEL and Reliance slipped around 2.5% each to Rs 185, Rs 1,412 and Rs 1,352, respectively.

Sterlite declined nearly 2% to Rs 269. ONGC [Get Quote] and ACC were down 1.7% each at Rs 695 and Rs 549, respectively.

Tata Power [Get Quote] and Grasim [Get Quote] were down around 1.5% each at Rs 795 and Rs 1,340, respectively.

ITC, Larsen & Toubro and TCS [Get Quote] declined around 1% each.

...AND THE MOVERS

Mahindra & Mahindra soared nearly 7% to Rs 300.

DLF surged 3.5% to Rs 156, and Reliance Infrastructure gained 1.5% at Rs 550.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

United Spirits [Get Quote] topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 251 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 187.70 crore), Educomp Solutions [Get Quote] (Rs 153.70 crore), Reliance Infrastructure (Rs 132 crore) and Reliance Capital [Get Quote] (Rs 130.50 crore).

Cals Refineries led the volume chart with trades of around 2.09 crore shares followed by Unitech (1.80 crore), Spice Telecom (1.68 crore), Satyam [Get Quote] (1.53 crore) and Hexaware [Get Quote] (1.31 crore).