The Sensex, after a free fall of over 200 points yesterday, opened with a small negative gap of three points at 5,709 today. The market was extremely volatile, as the index touched its intra-day high and low in the opening session.

While all-round buying in early deals saw the index spurt to a high of 5,753, a sharp slump led by pharma, tech and other old economy stocks dragged the index below the 5,700-mark to an intra-day low of 5,660 by late morning trades.

The Sensex, which switched between positive and negative territory through the afternoon trades, finally ended up a point at 5,713. The Nifty ended flat at 1,817, coming off from its intra-day high of 1,834.

While 13 Sensex stocks advanced, 17 declined today. Advancing shares accounted for a volume of 1.85 crore for Rs 881.03 crore, and declining shares registered a volume of 76 lakh amounting to Rs 333.98 crore.

While heavyweight and cement majors finished with decent gains, PSU scrips largely ended weak today.

ITC and Reliance closed up a rupee each at Rs 1,055 and Rs 540, respectively. HLL, however, lost 1.33% (Rs 2) to Rs 145.

Grasim, on the back of its impressive fourth and full year results, rose 2.66% (Rs 31) to Rs 1,197. While L&T clocked a per cent gain (Rs 6) to Rs 586, ACC was up 1.12% (Rs 3) at Rs 270. Gujarat Ambuja, however, was down a per cent (Rs 2) at Rs 323.

SBI jumped 1.48% (Rs 9) to Rs 639. While BHEL declined 1.72% (Rs 10) to Rs 590, HPCL was down a per cent (Rs 4) at Rs 474. MTNL shed 2.52% (Rs 4) to Rs 145.

Auto sectors ended with gains. Bajaj moved up 1.59% (Rs 14) to Rs 920. While Tata Motors also ended in the gainers list at Rs 485 (up Rs 5), Hero Honda, however, ended weak at Rs 479.

Tech and pharma pivotals ended with steep losses.

Infosys ended down a per cent (Rs 38) at Rs 5,098, after registering gains in early deals. While Wipro also was down a per cent (Rs 8) at Rs 1,522, Satyam was down Rs 2 at Rs 317.

Dr. Reddy's shed 2.79% (Rs 26) to Rs 903. While Cipla slumped 1.96% (Rs 26) to Rs 1,318, Ranbaxy, however, bounced from its lows to end with a small gain of Rs 3 at Rs 1,061.

Hindalco (down Rs 13 to Rs 1,202), Reliance Energy (down Rs 10 or 1.32% to Rs 750) and Tata Power (down Rs 3 to Rs 385) ended at subdued levels. ICICI Bank, however, ended at higher levels with a gain of 1.70% (Rs 5) at Rs 317. Tisco also finished higher at Rs 384 - up Rs 5.