The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 48 points at 14,691, and soon spurted to a new all-time intra-day high of 14,698. Profit taking at higher levels forced the index slip into the negative zone.

The index tumbled to a low of 14,523 - down 175 points from the peak - in early noon deals led by weakness in metal stocks. However, renewed buying interest at lower levels saw the index recoup losses and bounce back into the positive zone.

The Sensex finally settled with a marginal gain of nine points at 14,652.

The BSE Metal index shed 1.6% to 9275.

The market breadth was fairly negative - out of 2,710 stocks traded, 1,634 declined, 1,016 advanced and the rest were unchanged today.

Index movers & shakers

ICICI Bank moved up 1.6% to Rs 998. Maruti and Reliance Energy gained 1.3% each at Rs 963 and Rs 566, respectively.

Hindalco plunged nearly 4% to Rs 175. Bajaj Auto dropped 2.3% to Rs 3,008.

HLL, Bharti Airtel, Hero Honda, Wipro and Satyam slipped around 1% each to Rs 205, Rs 765, Rs 726, Rs 635 and Rs 486, respectively.

Value & volume toppers

Debutant Global Broadcasting topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 641.50 crore followed by Shree Ashtavinayak (Rs 174 crore), Auto Industries (Rs 164.50 crore), Akruti Nirman (Rs 150 crore) and Cambridge Technologies (Rs 107 crore).

Bellary Steel led the volume chart with trades of around 4.30 crore shares followed by IFCI (1.67 crore), Global Broadcasting (1.31 crore), Cambridge Technologies (96.25 lakh) and Reliance Natural Resources (87.75 lakh).