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 [Get Quote] and SBI [Get Quote] advanced 2.% each to Rs 857 and Rs 1,340, respectively.

Wipro [Get Quote] added 2.1% to Rs 483. Larsen & Toubro was up 1.9% at Rs 2,703.

Jaiprakash Associates [Get Quote] and Bharti Airtel [Get Quote] inched around 1.6% each at Rs 186 and Rs 820, respectively.

Reliance gained nearly 1% to Rs 2,282.

Grasim [Get Quote], Mahindra & Mahindra and Hindalco [Get Quote] were the other prominent gainers.

. . .AND THE SHAKERS

Ranbaxy [Get Quote] plunged 3.1% at Rs 543. DLF declined 2.6% to Rs 498. Ambuja Cements slipped 2.6% at Rs 86.

HDFC Bank [Get Quote] dropped 1.8% to Rs 1,164. NTPC shed 1.3% to Rs 163.

Infosys [Get Quote] was down nearly 1% at Rs 1,877. HDFC lost 0.7% to Rs 2,172. Cipla, ACC and TCS [Get Quote] 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 [Get Quote] (Rs 372.83 crore), Suzlon Energy [Get Quote] (Rs 292.39 crore), Reliance Capital [Get Quote] (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 [Get Quote] (1.85 crore), Spice Telecom (1.32 crore) and Suzlon Energy (1.16 crore).