Boosted by better-than-expected quarterly results from IT major Infosys Technologies, the market got off to a bright start this morning and despite losing ground soon thereafter and trading in a choppy fashion for around three hours, the market rallied sharply post release-minute wrap-up of IIP figures.

But then, a severe bout of selling pressure engulfed the market during the closing minutes of the session and blew the wind out of several large, medium and small cap stocks and pushed it down to a highly negative close today. Information technology stocks, however, weathered the onslaught and romped home on a winning note.

Oil, power, capital goods and realty stocks declined sharply. Bank, pharma, metal, telecom and auto stocks too wilted under pressure. Select FMCG stocks garnered some support.

Weakness exhibited by stocks on the European bourses and lower US index futures that pointed to a negative start for Wall Street triggered a sell-off of severe intensity during the closing minutes of the session today.

The Sensex, which had spurted to 13,897.19 following the release of fairly strong industrial output data, went crashing down to 13,418.39 as stocks went into a tailspin. The barometer eventually ended the session at 13,504.22 with a huge loss of 253.24 points or 1.84%.

The National Stock Exchange's 50 stock Nifty index ended with a loss of 73.05 points or 1.89% at 4003.90, a few points off the day's low of 3976.80. In intra-day trades, the Nifty touched a high of 4129.95. Both Sensex and Nifty tumbled to their lowest levels since 15 May 2009. On that day, the Sensex and Nifty had ended at 12,173.42 and 3671.65 respectively. A session later, on 18 May to be precise, the two indices had hit the upper circuits and forced a trading halt for the first ever time in the market's history.

So widespread was the selling this afternoon that only six stocks, Wipro (3.4%), Sterlite Industries (3.35%), Infosys Technologies (3%), Tata Consultancy Services (1.6%), Maruti Suzuki (0.7%) and Hindustan Unilever (0.25%) among the Sensex components ended on the positive side today.

Among Nifty stocks, besides the six stocks cited above, Cairn India, SAIL, Tata Communications and Cipla were the ones that bucked the trend today.

Infosys Technologies beat expectations with a 17% rise in quarterly profit and raised its full-year forecast at the lower end on hopes for a pick up in outsourcing demand from overseas clients. The IT major forecast consolidated revenue to fall 3.1% - 4.6% to $4.45 - $4.52 billion in the year to March 2010 and expects its earnings to decline 11.1% -12.3% in dollar terms. In April, the firm had forecast earnings to fall 11.1% - 15.1% on a revenue fall of 3.1% -6.7%.

Among prominent losers, Reliance Infrastructure went down by 6.5%. Jaiprakash Associates and Reliance Communications lost 5.6% and 5.4% respectively. HDFC, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Reliance Industries, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hindalco, State Bank of India, ACC and Tata Power lost 3% - 5%.

Tata Steel lost nearly 3%. HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel, Larsen & Toubro, Hero Honda, BHEL, ITC, ONGC and ICICI Bank lost 1% - 2.25%. Grasim Industries, NTPC, Tata Motors and DLF also ended weak.

BPCL, Reliance Power, GAIL India, Siemens, Suzlon Energy, Axis Bank, Unitech, ABB, Idea Cellular, Nalco and Reliance Capital were among the major losers in the Nifty index.

Several midcap and smallcap stocks plunged sharply on selling pressure and the market breadth was very weak at close. Out of 2638 stocks traded on BSE, 1785 stocks declined and 772 stocks closed with gains. 81 stocks ended flat.

The data released by the government this noon showed that India's industrial output rose 2.7% in May 2009 compared to a revised growth of 1.2% in April 2009. April's annual growth rate was revised down to 1.2% from 1.4% previously. Manufacturing production rose 2.5% in May 2009 from a year earlier.