The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 43 points at 15,278, but slipped in early trades due to nervousness following the steep fall on Friday. The index tumbled to a low of 15,135 -- down 143 points from the day's open.

Aggressive buying in select stocks like Hindustan Unilever, SBI [Get Quote] and cement shares helped the index rebound into positive zone. The buying momentum was so strong in mid-noon trades that the index rallied to a high of 15,452 - up 317 points from the day's low.

Intra-day profit-taking saw the Sensex pare gains, and finally end with a marginal gain of 26 points at 15,261. The NSE Nifty ended at 4,440, down 5 points.

The BSE Bankex rallied 1.7% to 8055, and the FMCG index was up nearly 1% at 1945. The Realty index dropped 2% to 7670, and the Metal index shed 1% at 11,381.

The market breadth was slightly positive -- out of 2,660 stocks traded, 1,342 advanced, 1,258 declined and 60 were unchanged on Monday.

Index Movers....

Hindustan Unilever soared 6.3% to Rs 209 after the company announced a Rs 630 crore buy back plan at Rs 230 per share.

SBI zoomed over 5% to Rs 1,579 on strong Q1 numbers.

Ambuja Cements surged over 3% to Rs 129. Grasim [Get Quote] advanced 3% to Rs 2,947, and ACC added 2% to Rs 1,023.

Reliance Energy [Get Quote] and Maruti [Get Quote] rallied over 2% each to Rs 780 and Rs 847, respectively.

Satyam [Get Quote] moved up over 1% to Rs 479, and NTPC also gained over 1% at Rs 163.

Tata Motors [Get Quote] and ICICI Bank [Get Quote] were up 1% each at Rs 707 and Rs 924, respectively.

....And The Shakers

Hindalco [Get Quote] plunged over 4% to Rs 166. Mahindra & Mahindra tumbled 3% to Rs 753.

ITC shed 2.6% to Rs 167. TCS [Get Quote] and Bajaj Auto [Get Quote] slipped 1.3% each to Rs 1,138 and Rs 2,293, respectively.

Dr Reddy's, Reliance, BHEL and Infosys [Get Quote] were down 1% each at Rs 636, Rs 1,848, Rs 1,644 and Rs 1,988, respectively.

Value & Volume Toppers

Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 217 crore followed by Reliance Energy (Rs 200 crore), HDIL (Rs 182.60 crore), SBI (Rs 178.20 crore) and Reliance Capital [Get Quote] (Rs 153 crore).

Reliance Natural Resources [Get Quote] led the volume chart with trades of around 1.80 crore shares followed by Harig Cranks (1.15 crore), IKF Technologies [Get Quote] (1.05 crore), IFCI (97.50 lakh) and Suryachakra Power (86.25 lakh).