Sensex ends at 13,340, down 42pts

Volatility has become the order of the day. The bulls and bears fought hard today as the Sensex swung wildly in and out of the positive zone.

The Sensex, which, opened with a positive gap of 70 points at 13,453, first scaled to a high of 13,568, and then soon tumbled to a low of 13,233 - down 335 points from the day's high.

The afternoon session saw the markets recover and the index rebound into positive zone gaining over 100 points led by smart buying in Infosys, Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel and ONGC.

However, the bears had the last laugh, as a fresh bout of selling towards the close saw the index tumble back into the negative zone.

The Sensex finally settled with a loss of 42 points at 13,340.