Intra-day profit booking in noon deals saw the index pare gains and drop to a low of 16,697.

The index moved in a range of 388 points between 16,697 (low) and 17,086 (high) before finally settling with a loss of 108 points at 16,753.

The NSE Nifty ended with a loss of 55 points at 4,958.

The market breadth was marginally positive - out of 2,784 stocks traded, 1,410 advanced, 1,304 declined and 70 were unchanged on Tuesday.

THE SHAKERS. . .

ONGC [Get Quote] plunged 3% at Rs 997, while Wipro [Get Quote] and ACC tumbled 2.7% each to Rs 494 and Rs 683, respectively.

TCS [Get Quote], Reliance and Bharti Airtel [Get Quote] declined around 2% to Rs 906, Rs 2,501 and Rs 821, respectively.

Ranbaxy [Get Quote] dropped 1.8% to Rs 485, and Grasim [Get Quote] was down 1.6% to Rs 2,219.

HDFC [Get Quote], Infosys [Get Quote] and DLF were the other major losers.

. . .AND THE MOVERS

Hindalco [Get Quote] and Jaiprakash Associates [Get Quote] gained 2.8% each to Rs 180 and Rs 253, respectively.

Reliance Infra surged 1.8% at Rs 1,381.

Satyam [Get Quote], ICICI Bank [Get Quote] and Tata Steel [Get Quote] advanced 1% each to Rs 496, Rs 889 and Rs 851, respectively.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

Aishwarya Telecom led the value chart with a turnover of Rs 759.28 crore followed by Cairn India [Get Quote] (Rs 247.16 crore), Reliance Petroleum [Get Quote] (Rs 216.72 crore), IFCI (Rs 212.81 crore) and Reliance Industries [Get Quote] (Rs 190.77 crore).

Aishwarya Telecom, also, topped the volume chart with trades of around 7.26 crore shares followed by IFCI (3.50 crore), Ispat (1.47 crore), Reliance Petroleum (1.19 crore) and Reliance Natural Resources [Get Quote] (1.17 crore).