A flurry of selling activity towards the late noon trades saw the index plunge below the 6,300-mark to touch an intra-day low of 6,287.
The Sensex finally crashed by a whopping 1.74%, or 112 points, to close above the 6,300-mark at 6,308.
The Nifty lost 33 points to close at 1,982.
Reliance snapped gains in the noon trades, and ended 1.36% lower (Rs 7) at Rs 533. ITC shed 1.93% (Rs 25) to Rs 1,273. HLL, however, held on to its gains and added 1.28% (Rs 2) to Rs 143.
Infosys plunged below the Rs 2,000 levels, and lost 2.77% (Rs 57) to Rs 1,994. While Wipro scaled down 3.12% (Rs 22) to Rs 678, Satyam dipped 3.49% (Rs 13) to Rs 374.
SBI slipped from higher levels to close 2.52% lower (Rs 15) at Rs 600. While ICICI Bank declined 3.21% (Rs 11) to Rs 347, HDFC Bank was down a per cent (Rs 3) at Rs 486.
ONGC was down a per cent (Rs 8) at Rs 784, and HPCL slipped 3.26% (Rs 13) to Rs 380.
Ranbaxy crashed 3% (Rs 36) to Rs 1,164. While Cipla lost 3.40% (Rs 10) to Rs 282, Dr. Reddy's was down 2% (Rs 16) at Rs 794.
Bharti was weak since the opening trades, and dropped nearly 4% (Rs 8) to Rs 203. While Tata Power slumped 4% (Rs 15) to Rs 354, Hindalco tumbled 1.80% (Rs 24) to Rs 1,300.