The Sensex opened with a huge negative gap of 550 points at 12,713,  owing to weak cues from the global markets, and soon slipped to a low of 12,558.

Buying emerged at lower levels as index took support around the July low of 12,500. Banking and oil & gas stocks led the recovery. As buying gained momentum, the index rebounded into the positive zone in tandem with other global markets.

The Sensex touched a high of 13,347, and finally ended with a gain of 53 points at 13,316.

The BSE Bankex rallied 2.7% (177 points) to 6,770, and the Oil & Gas index surged 2.3% (207 points) to 8,973.

The market breadth was fairly negative - out of 2,690 stocks traded, 1,941 declined, 679 advanced and 70 were unchanged.

INDEX MOVERS. . .

Sterlite surged 3.5% to Rs 455. HDFC Bank [Get Quote], Reliance and NTPC rallied over 3% each to Rs 1,222, Rs 1,933 and Rs 174, respectively.

ICICI Bank [Get Quote] and Maruti [Get Quote] gained 2.7% each at Rs 576 and Rs 718, respectively.

Mahindra & Mahindra and Reliance Infrastructure added 2.5% each to Rs 551 and Rs 850, respectively.

SBI [Get Quote] and ONGC [Get Quote] advanced over 2% each to Rs 1,561 and Rs 999, respectively.

ACC and Larsen & Toubro were up 1.5% each at Rs 601 and Rs 2,539, respectively.

. . .AND THE SHAKERS

Ranbaxy [Get Quote] slumped 10% to Rs 341. Jaiprakash Associates [Get Quote] plunged 6.7% to Rs 127.

Satyam [Get Quote] tumbled over 4% to Rs 335. Infosys [Get Quote] and Tata Steel [Get Quote] dropped 3.3% each to Rs 1,524 and Rs 459, respectively.

DLF shed 3% at Rs 396. Tata Power [Get Quote] slipped over 2% to Rs 949.

HDFC slipped over 1.5% to Rs 2,131. Bharti Airtel [Get Quote] and TCS [Get Quote] were down over 1% each at Rs 760 and Rs 720, respectively.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 452.40 crore followed by Reliance Capital [Get Quote] (Rs 442.25 crore), Bharti Airtel (Rs 391.40 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 254 crore) and HDFC (Rs 222.30 crore).

Reliance Natural Resources [Get Quote] led the volume chart with trades of nearly two crore shares followed by S.Kumars (1.34 crore), IFCI (1.34 crore), K S Oils (1.21 crore) and Jaiprakash Associates (1.10 crore).