Taking cues from the overseas markets, the Sensex opened with a huge negative gap of 268 points at 14,651 and dropped to a low of 14,592. However, fresh buying (mainly in Tata Steel [Get Quote]) at lower levels saw the index recoup losses in early trades.

Buying spread to other counters as the day progressed, and the index rebounded by mid-noon trades. The index touched a high of 15,030 - up 438 points from the day's low. The Sensex finally ended with a gain of 74 points at 14,993. NSE Nift closed up 39 points at 4,359.

The BSE Metal index surged over 4% to 11,204. The Oil & Gas index was up over 1% at 7937.

The market breadth was positive - out of 2,693 stocks traded, 1,533 advanced, 1,093 declined and 67 were unchanged today.

Index movers...

Tata Steel soared 9% to Rs 660. ONGC [Get Quote] surged 3% to Rs 834, and BHEL added 2.5% to Rs 1,851.

Hindalco [Get Quote] and Reliance Energy [Get Quote] rallied 2% each to Rs 157 and Rs 782, respectively. Tata Motors [Get Quote] advanced 1.8% to Rs 675.

SBI [Get Quote] and ACC gained 1.7% each at Rs 1,575 and Rs 1,044, respectively.

Larsen & Toubro, Ranbaxy [Get Quote] and Grasim [Get Quote] moved up around 1.5% each to Rs 2,588, Rs 372 and Rs 2,910, respectively. Bajaj Auto [Get Quote] was up 1% at Rs 2,319.

Metal stocks witnessed huge buying today. SAIL [Get Quote] surged 5% to Rs 161. Jindal Saw [Get Quote] Pipes, Jindal Stainless [Get Quote], Jindal Steel, JSW Steel [Get Quote], National Aluminium, Sesa Goa [Get Quote], Sterlite and Shree Precoated were up 2-3% each.

...and the shakers

Infosys [Get Quote] shed 2.5% to Rs 1,834. NTPC dropped 1.3% to Rs 165.

HDFC [Get Quote] and Satyam [Get Quote] slipped around 1% each to Rs 1,957 and Rs 445, respectively.

Most active counters

Tata Steel topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 212 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 175.70 crore), Everonn Systems (Rs 168 crore), ICICI Bank [Get Quote] (Rs 134 crore) and Axis Bank (Rs 131.50 crore).

Ispat Industries [Get Quote] led the volume chart with trades of around 3.64 crore shares followed by Tata Steel (3.25 crore), Nagarjuna Fertilisers (1.48 crore), UCO Bank [Get Quote] (87.75 lakh) and IFCI (85.50 lakh).