Mumbai, Feb 5: The Sensex opened with a negative gap of over 60 points at 18,593, and slipped to a low of 18,510. Fresh buying at lower levels helped the index move into positive zone and hit a high of 18,730 - up 220 points from the day's low - in late morning deals.

Alternate bouts of profit-taking and buying activity saw the Sensex move in a narrow range for most part of the session, and finally end on a flat note at 18,663 - up three points.

The NSE Nifty settled with a gain of 20 points at 5,484.

The BSE market breadth was fairly positive - out of 2,835 stocks traded, 1,915 advanced, 870 declined and 50 were unchanged today.

NTPC surged 4% to Rs 223. Ranbaxy rallied 3.8% to Rs 387.

Hindalco and Tata Steel advanced nearly 2% each to Rs 182 and Rs 818, respectively.

Cipla, HDFC and ONGC gained 1.8% each at Rs 203, Rs 3,070 and Rs 1,074, respectively.

Bharti Airtel moved up 1.5% to Rs 936. Larsen & Toubro and BHEL added 1.3% each at Rs 3,855 and Rs 2,086, respectively.

TCS declined 2.7% to Rs 949. Wipro and Infosys slipped around 2% each to Rs 454 and Rs 1,611, respectively.

Maruti dropped 2.7% to Rs 872. Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Auto and Tata Motors were down around 2% each at Rs 681, Rs 2,404 and Rs 756, respectively.

HDFC Bank and SBI declined around 2% each to Rs 1,515 and Rs 2,228, respectively. ICICI Bank was down 1.7% at Rs 1,190.