Aggressive profit-taking in metal and realty stocks saw the index slip nearly 300 points from the day's high.

The Sensex opened 126 points higher at 9,550 on the back of follow-up buying coupled with positive global cues. The index rallied to a high of 9,699 on the back of strong gains in banking and realty stocks.

However, profit-taking at higher levels forced the index pare gains in the latter half of the day. Metal and realty stocks bore the brunt of the selling pressure.

The index slipped into red to 9,403 - down 296 points from the day's high - towards the close. The Sensex finally ended with a marginal gain of 47 points at 9,471.

The NSE Nifty ended at 2,939, down 7 points.

The market breadth was marginally negative - out of 2,636 stocks traded, 1,395 declined, 1,134 advanced and 107 were unchanged on Tuesday.

INDEX MOVERS. . .

HDFC Bank [Get Quote] zoomed over 6% to Rs 941. ICICI Bank [Get Quote] and HDFC Bank surged around 2.5% each to Rs 355 and Rs 1,564, respectively. SBI [Get Quote] added 1% to Rs 1,035.

BHEL rallied over 2% to Rs 1,444. Ranbaxy [Get Quote] and Bharti Airtel [Get Quote] moved up nearly 2% each to Rs 164 and Rs 603, respectively.

Wipro [Get Quote] and Mahindra & Mahindra were up over 1% each at Rs 242 and Rs 374, respectively.

. . .AND THE SHAKERS

Jaiprakash Associated slumped nearly 7% to Rs 79.

Hindalco [Get Quote] and Reliance Infrastructure plunged around 4.5% each to Rs 50 and Rs 508, respectively.

Reliance Communications [Get Quote] tumbled 4% to Rs 161. Tata Steel [Get Quote] shed 3.6% at Rs 187.

Sun Pharma [Get Quote] dropped nearly 3% to Rs 1,051. Tata Motors [Get Quote], a day after the Nano lauch, slipped 2.4% to Rs 162.

ONGC [Get Quote] and Grasim [Get Quote] declined 2% each to Rs 779 and Rs 1,494, respectively.

ACC and Sterlite were down around 1.5% each at Rs 326 and Rs 549, respectively.

OTHER PROMINENT GAINS...

Simens surged over 6% to Rs 238. Tata Chemicals [Get Quote], Suzlon [Get Quote], HPCL [Get Quote], United Phosphorous, Rei Agro [Get Quote], Yes Bank [Get Quote], Jai Corp [Get Quote], Zee Entertainment, Unitech and MTNL [Get Quote] gained 4-5% each.

. . .AND OTHER LOSERS

Cromption Greaves slumped nearly 10% to Rs 122. Religare, Hindustan Copper [Get Quote], Madras Cement, Reliance Capital [Get Quote], Piramal Healthcare, NMDC, India Infoline [Get Quote], SAIL [Get Quote], Idea Cellular [Get Quote] and Godrej [Get Quote] Industires shed 5-8% each.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

Akruti City topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 296.40 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 287.65 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs 248.75 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 195.70 crore) and SBI (Rs 154.60 crore).

Unitech led the volume chart with trades of around 2.12 crore shares followed by Suzlon (1.57 crore), Reliance Natural Resources [Get Quote] (1.52 crore), Cals Refineries (82.93 lakh) and Satyam [Get Quote] (68.90 lakh).