Close to its closing, the Sensex saw a rebound post-noon losses, and scaled up 75 points at 18,273, but the Nifty was flat, with a positive bias, at 5,464 up 5 points.
Gainers on the Sensex were Wipro at Rs 446 and TCS at Rs 1,120 both up 3%, while Sterlite Industries at Rs 164 gained 2%.
Losing stocks on the BSE benchmark were Tata Motors at Rs 1,152 down by a whopping 4%, Tata Power at Rs 1,241 and Maruti Suzuki at Rs 1,208 both up 2%.
The IT index led the sectoral pack at 6,343 up nearly 2%, followed by the Teck index at 3,695 and the Oil & Gas index at 9,437, both up a per cent each.
Mid-cap and small-cap stocks underperformed the benchmark stocks, as the Mid-cap index fell half a per cent at 6,629, and the Small-cap slipped nearly 1% at 8,073.
After a flat opening this morning, the bourses turned choppy within early hours of trade. "The trend deciding level for the day is 18,354/5,500 levels", said Angel Broking.
On February 18, the last working day for the markets last week, the Sensex closed down 295 points at 18,202, and the Nifty shut shop down 88 points at 5,459.
However, owing to a pre-budget sentiment buffering, the markets opened on a positive note this morning, with Budget-related positive news flow and softening inflation eased investors' nervousness.
The Indian equity markets, down 11% so far this year, and amongst the worst performing market after Egypt, saw an outflow of $1.65 billion on the back of unhealthy political headwinds, and a deepening telecom spectrum scam.
Dull trades constituted mid-morning sessions as the BSE benchmark Sensex remained unchanged, while the Nifty remained flat.
The BSE Capital Goods, Consumer Durables and FMCG indices were amongst the top sectoral performers, while the Auto index languished at the bottom of the sectoral chart.
Realty and banking stocks also saw selling pressure, and were amongst the sectoral losers.
Noon trades continued to witness weak trades, with the Auto index continuing its negative run as the top sectoral loser, while the broader markets traded in negative territory in the absence of any positive cues from the government regarding the Union Budget, or the 2G fiasco.
However, afternoon trades experienced some major movements, as the Sensex shed 108 points at 18,102, while the Nifty was trading lower by 37 points at 5,421 at 1330 hours.
Auto heavyweights Tata Motors, Hero Honda, M&M and Maruti Suzuki pulled down the index amidst concerns the forthcoming Budget may propose a hike in excise duties.
On the volatile market scenario, Samir Arora, Helios Capital, said, "I do not know how much will the upside be, but basically it cannot be the pace that the rest of the world is rallying and we are down 15-18%. What we saw two weeks ago, this kind of disjoint between the two markets like US and India will not be seen."