The index touched a day's low of 14,748 -- down 437 points from its previous close.
The index recovered smartly in late noon deals and touched a day's high of 15,271 - swung 523 points intraday.
Consumer durables and oil & gas stocks gained 1.7% and 1.4%, respectively, while IT stocks lost 0.3%.
The Sensex finally ended with a gain of 65 points at 15,250.
The market breadth was marginally positive - out of 2,674 stocks traded, 1,481 advanced, 1,109 declined, and 84 were unchanged.
The NSE Nifty moved up 16 points at 4,539.
INDEX MOVERS . . .
BHEL gained 2.5% to Rs 1,519, while Reliance Infrastructure has moved up 2.4% to Rs 1,046.
Tata Steel and SBI advanced 2.% each to Rs 857 and Rs 1,340, respectively.
Wipro added 2.1% to Rs 483. Larsen & Toubro was up 1.9% at Rs 2,703.
Jaiprakash Associates and Bharti Airtel inched around 1.6% each at Rs 186 and Rs 820, respectively.
Reliance gained nearly 1% to Rs 2,282.
Grasim, Mahindra & Mahindra and Hindalco were the other prominent gainers.
. . .AND THE SHAKERS
Ranbaxy plunged 3.1% at Rs 543. DLF declined 2.6% to Rs 498. Ambuja Cements slipped 2.6% at Rs 86.
HDFC Bank dropped 1.8% to Rs 1,164. NTPC shed 1.3% to Rs 163.
Infosys was down nearly 1% at Rs 1,877. HDFC lost 0.7% to Rs 2,172. Cipla, ACC and TCS were down 0.5% each to Rs 217, Rs 632 and Rs 888, respectively.
MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS
Reliance led the value chart with a turnover of Rs 417.14 crore followed by Reliance Petroleum (Rs 372.83 crore), Suzlon Energy (Rs 292.39 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs 245.83 crore) and DLF (Rs 218.02 crore).
IFCI topped the volume chart with trades of around 3.15 crore shares followed by Reliance Petroleum (2.13 crore), Reliance Natural Resources (1.85 crore), Spice Telecom (1.32 crore) and Suzlon Energy (1.16 crore).