The index, however, could not hold gains as a fresh round of selling in technology stocks pulled down the index to a low of 13,270 - down 289 points from the day's high. The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 139 points at 13,331.
The BSE IT index plunged 6% to 3,676.
The market breadth was negative - out of 2,649 stocks traded, 1,579 declined, 1,007 advanced and 63 were unchanged today.
The NSE Nifty ended with a marginal loss of nine points at 4040.
More From This Section
INDEX SHAKERS...
Ranbaxy slumped 10.5% (Rs 56) to Rs 476.
Satyam plunged 8% to Rs 409, and Infosys tumbled over 7% to Rs 1,556. TCS shed 3.8% at Rs 769. Wipro dropped 2% to Rs 404.
HDFC, BHEL, ITC and HDFC Bank slipped 3.3% each to Rs 1,933, Rs 1,470, Rs 169 and Rs 1,033, respectively.
Hindalco declined 3% to Rs 151. ICICI Bank shed 2% at Rs 580.
ACC dropped 1.5% to Rs 535. Jaiprakash Associates and Bharti Airtel were down over 1% each at Rs 155 and Rs 737, respectively.
...AND THE MOVERS
ONGC and NTPC surged over 3% each to Rs 877 and Rs 167, respectively.
Mahindra & Mahindra and SBI rallied nearly 3% each to Rs 546 and Rs 1,258, respectively.
Tata Steel gained 2.7% at Rs 684. Ambuja Cements and Tata Motors added 2.5% each to Rs 83 and Rs 409, respectively.
Reliance Infrastructure and Hindustan Unilever moved up 2% each to Rs 818 and Rs 219, respectively.
Cipla, Reliance and Larsen & Toubro advanced 1.5% each to Rs 215, Rs 2,047 and Rs 2,392, respectively.
VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS
Reliance Capital topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 306.25 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 249 crore), NDTV (Rs 193 crore), debutant KSK Energy (Rs 191.50 crore) and Infosys (Rs 145.20 crore).
IFCI led the volume chart with trades of around 1.81 crore shares followed by Reliance Natural Resources (1.47 crore), Ispat Industries (1.23 crore), KSK Energy (99.25 lakh) and Chambal Fertilisers (85 lakh).