With the sharp either side movements, the DSE index which was driven down by agressive profit sellers, recovered to settle at 994.54 points against the last level of 994.84.

Marketmen said the software scrips were distinctly lower in early trade due to profit-booking by bull operators but fresh purchases by foreign funds at lower levels pushed them up to recover most of the losses.

They said along with the better trend, economy stocks also made their way to pick up on purchases by market players along with domestic financial funds' select buying.

However, some of the shares were lower from their previous closing levels as profit-booking was strong.

Shares of KLG Systel, despite a weak trend, remained the centre of brisk trading and remained freezed at upper circuit breaker ofRs 312.80 against last close of Rs 289.65.

Software Solution was another bright spot and zoomed up by Rs 60 at Rs 1,110 on emergence of buying at the fag-end. MTNL and Himachal Futuristic were significantly higher on favourable corporate reports and gained Rs 10.50 and Rs 9.30 at Rs 189 and Rs 344, respectively on investment buying. Meanwhile, on the Bombay Stock Exchange, in the specified group, Sun Pharma, Nicholas Piramal, Siemens, Amara Raja Batteries and India Cement were locked in upper circuit filter after exhausting the daily limit.

Of the 145 traded specified shares, 99 registered moderate losses while 44 showed sharp to handsome gains and two remained unchanged. The BSE-200 index and the dollex were quoted remarkably down at 505.53 and 193.89 compared with previous close of 508.84 and 195.07, respectively. The BSE-500 index eased by 6.90 points to 1514.77 from last Sunday's close of 1521.67.

Ranbaxy clocked the highest turnover of Rs 329.67 crore of the total volume of business of Rs 2445.92crore. Other top traded scrips were Satyam Computer (Rs 295.73 crore), Pentafour (Rs 178.63 crore), Silverline (Rs 166.02 crore) and Zee Telefilms (Rs 153.98 crore).

The market leader Ranbaxy Lab improved by Rs 8.50 to Rs 971. Satyam computer dipped by Rs 10.90 to Rs 1529, Pentafour Software by Rs 19.70 to Rs 698.20, Zee Telefilms by Rs 106 to Rs 4400, HLL by Rs 59.70 to Rs 2356.