Heavy-selling saw the markets dropping over 1% each in mid morning trades after opening in the red. The Sensex opened at 15,931 and tumbled over 262 points to a low of 15,652.

A strong opening in European markets buoyed the index over the 16,000 mark in late noon trades. The index touched a high of 16,061 - recovering over 400 points from the day's low.

The Sensex, however, started dropping once again and ended flat at 15,936. The Nifty after moving between 4,675 and 4,799 ended almost unchanged at 4,760.

Most indices managed a rebound, led by capital goods, banking and realty stocks. However, the BSE metal index dropped around 1% in trades today.

Telecom stocks were the big gainers today with Bharti Airtel [ Get Quote ] gaining 2.7% at Rs 169. Reliance Communications [ Get Quote ] added 2.2% to Rs 169.

ONGC [ Get Quote ] advanced 1.8% to Rs 1,114. Hindustan Unilever jumped 1.7% to Rs 235. Mahindra & Mahindra and Sun Pharma [ Get Quote ] advanced 1.4% each.

Banking stocks added. SBI [ Get Quote ] added 1.1% to Rs 1,935. ICICI Bank [ Get Quote ] was up marginally. Larsen & Toubro, BHEL and Infosys [ Get Quote ] also moved in the green.

Debutant stock, Jubilant Foodworks surged 58% from its issue price of Rs 145. The stock ended with hefty volumes at Rs 229.

On the other hand, Tata Steel [ Get Quote ] shed 4.4% at Rs 534. Hindalco [ Get Quote ] dropped 3.7% to Rs 136. Sterlite, however, was in the green.

Wipro [ Get Quote ], NTPC and Jaiprakash Associates [ Get Quote ] were down around 1% each.

FMCG major, ITC, dropped 1% to Rs 245. Other losers in the index included Tata Power [ Get Quote ], Tata Motors [ Get Quote ] and ACC.

The BSE market breadth was marginally negative. Out of 2,854 stocks traded, 1,443 declined while 1,329 advanced.

Jubilant Foodworks topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 655.16 crore, followed by Tata Steel (Rs 257.74 crore), Reliance (Rs 129.01 crore), SBI (Rs 115.20 crore) and Hindalco (Rs 106.56 crore).

The volume chart was led by Jubilant Foodworks with trades of over 31 million shares, followed by IFCI (8.79 million), Hindalco (7.76 million) and Suzlon [ Get Quote ] (7.28 million).