The Sensex, which opened with a negative gap of 32 points at 4,842, soon touched an intra-day low of 4,813 due to all-round selling pressure. The markets recovered later following buying in select old and new economy stocks.
The Sensex finally closed with a loss of three points at 4,871. The Nifty ended flat at 1,537.
Reliance ended weak with a loss of Rs 4 at Rs 434. HLL closed down a tad at Rs 127. ITC, however, attracted considerable buying support, and gained 2.57% (Rs 23) to close at Rs 910.
HPCL lost 3% (Rs 10) to Rs 329. BHEL was down 1.46% (Rs 8) at Rs 513. ONGC clocked a per cent gain (Rs 9) to Rs 676. MTNL was up a rupee at Rs 131. SBI added Rs 2 to Rs 445.
Gujarat Ambuja dropped 3.42% (Rs 10) to Rs 275. ACC dipped 1.80% (Rs 4) to Rs 240. Grasim, however, ended with a rupee gain at Rs 1,038.
Ranbaxy (down Rs 8 to Rs 913) and Dr. Reddy's (down Rs 4 to Rs 734) ended on a lacklustre note. Cipla, however, moved up 2% (Rs 4) to Rs 218.
Infosys, after a mixed outing, gained 1.12% (Rs 16) to close at Rs 1,425. Satyam ended on a flat note at Rs 310. Wipro lost 1.51% (Rs 8) to Rs 528.
Hero Honda added 1.39% (Rs 7) to Rs 512. However, Tata Motors, Bajaj and Maruti ended at lower levels.
HDFC Bank at Rs 365 (down Rs 7 or 1.79%) displayed weak trends. Tata Power dropped 1.75% (Rs 4) to Rs 236. Tisco was down a per cent (Rs 2) at Rs 304. Zee shed 2.70% (Rs 3) to finish at Rs 124.
Bharti had a decent outing today, and notched up 3.16% gains (Rs 4) to close at Rs 144. Hindalco moved up 1.81% (Rs 18) to Rs 1,027. HDFC closed up a per cent (Rs 3) at Rs 532.