Mumbai, Mar 7: The Sensex opened with a huge negative gap of 330 points at 16,212 on weak global cues. Unabated selling saw the index slip below the 16,000-mark to a low of 15,690 - down 852 points from the previous close.

Buying at lower levels saw the Sensex finally close with a loss of 3.4% (567 points) at 15,975.

The index thus ended the week on a dismal note - down over 9% (1,604 points).

The market breadth was extremely negative - out of 2,710 stocks traded, 2,384 declined, 295 advanced and the rest were unchanged today.

Reliance Energy (REL) slumped 13% to Rs 1,270. The company, on Wednesday, had announced a buyback at Rs 1,600 per share.

Bajaj Auto tumbled over 11% to Rs 1,889. ICICI Bank declined 7% at Rs 893, and Larsen & Toubro dropped 6.6% to Rs 2,988.

Hindalco declined 5.8% to Rs 196. NTPC was down 5% at Rs 185.

HDFC, Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors slipped 4.5% each to Rs 2,629, Rs 665 and Rs 672, respectively.

Ranbaxy dropped over 4% to Rs 435. HDFC Bank and Wipro declined 3.7% each to Rs 1,286 and Rs 415, respectively.

DLF and ONGC were down nearly 3.5% each at Rs 658 and Rs 955, respectively.

Reliance Communications gained 3% to Rs 543.

Hindustan Unilever and Bharti Airtel also closed with gains today.

Debutant GSS America topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 657.70 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 286.80 crore), Reliance Natural Resources (Rs 239.30 crore), Reliance Communications (Rs 230.50 crore) and Reliance Energy (Rs 229.40 crore).

Reliance Natural Resources led the volume chart with trades of around 2.19 crore shares followed by GSS America (1.40 crore), Ispat Industries (1.24 crore), Reliance Petroleum (1.06 crore) and Tata Teleservices (88 lakh).