The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 25 points at 4,150. A sharp rally in early morning deals saw the index stretch its gains and spurt to an intra-day high of 4,171.

The serial bomb blasts in South Mumbai around 1300 hrs saw the index crash to a low of 3,944 - a loss of 181 points. Around 42 people have lost their lives and 150 were injured in the twin blasts till last reports came in.

The Sensex, however, recouped some lost ground towards the close, but still ended 120 points lower at 4,005. The Nifty dropped 40 points to close at 1,271.

Only two out of the 30 Sensex stocks - HDFC and Ranbaxy - withstood the carnage today. The traded volume and value of the index scips were higher at 3.42 crore and Rs 1,074.96 crore, respectively. Declining shares accounted for over 90% - 3.38 crore shares traded and value of Rs 1,040 crore.

Declining shares outnumbered advancers 4:1 in the broad market today. While 1,613 scrips declined, only 451 managed to garner gains today.

Heavyweights, PSUs and tech stocks lost heavily on unabated selling pressure.

ITC slipped below the Rs 800-mark to close with a loss of 5% (Rs 41) at Rs 770. Reliance and HLL, too, ended in negative territory at Rs 378 (down a per cent or Rs 5) and Rs 180 (down 3% or Rs 6), respectively.

BHEL at Rs 319 (down 4% or Rs 13), HPCL at Rs 382 (down 5% or Rs 19), SBI at Rs 421 (down Rs 14 or 3%) and MTNL at Rs 125 (down 6% or Rs 8) ended with steep losses.

Infosys closed with a loss of 3% (Rs 95) at Rs 3,550. While Satyam dropped 6% (Rs 12) to Rs 198, HCL Tech dipped 5% (Rs 8) to Rs 162.

Cement, auto and pharma stocks, too, ended at lower levels.

Grasim, Gujarat Ambuja and ACC dropped 5% each to Rs 592 (down Rs 28), Rs 221 (down Rs 12) and Rs 206 (down Rs 11), respectively. L&T was down 4% (Rs 12) at Rs 276.

Bajaj, declined nearly 2% (Rs 11) at Rs 694. Telco was also down 2% (Rs 6) at Rs 256. Hero Honda, which remained firm for better part of the trading session, closed down a per cent (Rs 4) at Rs 275.

Dr. Reddy's and Cipla fell from higher levels to finish with a loss of per cent each at Rs 1,086 (down Rs 14) and Rs 888 (down Rs 12), respectively. Glaxo lost 2% (Rs 10) at Rs 402. Ranbaxy, however, ended marginally higher at Rs 888.

Zee at Rs 104 (down 10% or Rs 12), Hindalco at Rs 902 (down 3% or Rs 25), BSES at Rs 312 (down 4% or Rs 15), Castrol at Rs 203 (down 3% or Rs 5), ICICI Bank at Rs 174 (down 3% or Rs 5) and Tisco at Rs 240 (down 5% or Rs 13) ended on a sluggish note. HDFC, however, was up Rs 2 at Rs 473.

Techs and oil PSUs incurred huge losses today. Wipro lost nearly 3% (Rs 25) to close at Rs 947. i-flex, too, lost 3% (Rs 38) to Rs 1,133. Digital, Mphasis, Hughes and Mastek dipped 4% each at Rs 436 (down Rs 21), Rs 361 (down Rs 16), Rs 299 (down Rs 14) and Rs 191 (down Rs 7), respectively.

IBP (down 6% or Rs 32 to Rs 547), BPCL (down 4% or Rs 14 to Rs 299), IOC (down 2% or Rs 7 to Rs 345) and ONGC (down 2% or Rs 14 to Rs 555) faltered under sustained selling pressure.

SAIL slipped from an intra-day high of Rs 41, to finish with a loss of 11% (Rs 4) at Rs 36. More than 2.55 crore shares changed hands on the BSE today with a turnover of Rs 95 crore.

SCI and RCF also ended at lower levels with a loss of 8% each at Rs 91 (down Rs 8) and Rs 36 (down Rs 3), respectively. Kochi Refineries, however, came off the day's high of Rs 146, and finally ended with a gain of 5% (Rs 7) at Rs 132.