Mumbai April 4: The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 63 points at 15,896, but soon slipped into red owing to nervousness in the markets. A sharp spike in inflation further dampened the index sentiment and the index tumbled to a low of 15,303 - down 593 points from the day's open.

Inflation based on the wholesale price index touched a 3-year high at 7% for the week ended March 22 as against 6.68% in the week before.

The Sensex finally ended with a significant loss of 489 points at 15,343.

The market breadth was fairly negative - out of 2,697 stocks traded, 1,823 declined, 808 advanced today.

The NSE Nifty dropped 125 points to close at 4,647.

BHEL and HDFC tumbled nearly 7% each to Rs 1,634 and Rs 2,278, respectively. Mahindra & Mahindra slumped 6% to Rs 605.

Larsen & Toubro slumped 5.7% to Rs 2,686. Jaiprakash Associates plunged over 5% to Rs 221.

Bharti Airtel and Wipro dropped 4.5% each to Rs 784 and Rs 416, respectively. ITC shed 3.5% at Rs 201.

ICICI Bank, Maruti and Reliance slipped 3% each to Rs 764, Rs 764 and Rs 2,322, respectively.

Cipla dropped 2.7% to Rs 214. HDFC Bank, DLF, Reliance Communications and Infosys declined around 2.5% each to Rs 1,292, Rs 608, Rs 500 and Rs 1,483, respectively.

Tata Motors and NTPC were down 2.3% each at Rs 614 and Rs 190, respectively.

Ambuja Cements, Reliance Energy, SBI and TCS were the other major losers today.

Ranbaxy surged 2.5% to Rs 458. Tata Steel ended a Re higher at 661.

Reliance Petroleum topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 247.60 crore followed by Reliance Capital (Rs 240.50 crore), BHEL (Rs 216.30 crore), Reliance (Rs 206.70 crore) and Larsen & Toubro (Rs 199.50 crore).

Ispat Industries led the volume chart with trades of around 2.15 crore shares followed by Tulsi Extrusions (1.54 crore), Reliance Natural Resources (1.48 crore), Reliance Petroleum (1.46 crore) and Indiabulls Securities (96 lakh).