The Sensex on Friday dropped 70 points to close at 4,770. The Nifty shed 21 points to end at 1,491.

After displaying a sluggish trend in the opening session, steady selling pressure gained momentum in the afternoon trades. The markets witnessed a total sell-off towards the closing hours as unabated selling pressure in old economy stocks pushed the index to an intra-day low of 4,751.

While six Sensex stocks advanced, 24 declined today.

Heavyweight, PSU and other select old economy stocks faltered due to strong selling pressure.

Reliance shed 2% (Rs 9) to Rs 445. ITC dropped 2.69% (Rs 24) to Rs 867. HLL was down 1.40% (Rs 2) at Rs 127.

SBI lost 2.59% (Rs 12) to Rs 437. MTNL dropped 3.89% (Rs 5) to Rs 126. ONGC dipped 2.70% (Rs 18) to Rs 644. HPCL lost 1.72% (Rs 6) to Rs 328.

BHEL, however, moved up 2.19% (Rs 10) to Rs 488.

Hindalco slumped 2.48% (Rs 23) to Rs 920. Reliance Energy (down Rs 11 or 1.96% to Rs 536), ICICI Bank (down Rs 4 or 1.67% to Rs 258) and Tisco (down Rs 8 or 2.94% to Rs 280) also closed the day with losses.

Zee shed 2.11% (Rs 3) to finish at Rs 132.

Ranbaxy tanked 5.78% (Rs 56) to Rs 909. Dr. Reddy's was marginally down by Rs 2 at Rs 753.

Cipla, however, closed up a tad at Rs 211.

Grasim lost 1.60% (Rs 15) to Rs 915. Gujarat Ambuja ended nearly 2% lower (Rs 5) at Rs 261. ACC was down 1.20% (Rs 3) at Rs 230.

Maruti lost 1.66% (Rs 7) to Rs 393. Tata Motors was down a per cent (Rs 4) at Rs 397. Bajaj and Hero Honda also ended at lower levels.

Meanwhile, Infosys closed with a gain of 1.17% (Rs 61) at Rs 5,265. Wipro also ended in the green at Rs 1,513 (up Rs 9). Satyam was down 1.31% (Rs 4) at Rs 294.

HDFC and HDFC Bank ended with marginal gains at Rs 563 and Rs 375, respectively.