The Sensex opened seven points lower at 15,388 and soon touched a day's low of 15,358.
Fresh buying in banking and realty stocks helped the index to touch a day's high of 15,733 - up 375 from day's low.
The index finally ended with a gain of 301 points at 15,697.
The market breadth was positive - out of 2,764 stocks traded, 1,802 advanced, 882 declined and 80 were unchanged today.
The NSE Nifty ended with a gain of 80 points at 4,653.
Index movers...
HDFC surged 6% at Rs 2,298. Maruti soared 5.2% to Rs 756. HDFC Bank gained 4.9% to Rs 1,207.
ONGC moved up 4.8% to Rs 884. SBI gained 4.6% to Rs 1,387, while Jaiprakash Associates advanced 4.5% to Rs 188.
Reliance Infrastructure was trading at Rs 1,105 - up 4.1%. Larsen & Toubro inched 3.7% to Rs 2,839.
DLF was up 3% at Rs 506. ICICI Bank gained 2.7% to Rs 820. Ranbaxy advanced 2.4% to Rs 581.
Hindustan Unilever and Reliance were up around 2% each at Rs 236 and Rs 2,329,
Ambuja Cements, Wipro and NTPC were the other major gainers.
...and the shakers
Reliance Communications slipped 1% at Rs 530. Satyam declined 0.8% to Rs 484.
Bharti Airtel was down 0.7% at Rs 834.
Most active counters
Anu Labs led the value chart with a turnover of Rs 449.50 crore followed by Reliance Capital (Rs 194.12 crore), Reliance (Rs 180.93 crore), Reliance Petroleum (Rs 162.72 crore) and Larsen & Toubro (Rs 127.31 crore).
Chambal Fertilisers topped the volume chart with trades of around 1.23 crore shares followed by Anu Labs (1.10 crore), Reliance Natural Resources (99 lakh), Nagarjuna Fertilisers (95 lakh) and Reliance Petroleum (88 lakh).
