The bellwether index closed at 8,747.43 points, up by a marginal gain of 8.19 points from its previous close.

Marketmen said there were intermittent bouts of buying by funds throughout the day but every surge was followed by profit selling.

They said gloomy outlook on economy continued to dominate and fears of contracting demand for services of outsourcing companies also loomed large.

IT stocks, led by Infosys Technologies suffered major losses on apprehensions that recession in the U S would impact the software export business. Indian software companies get nearly 50 per cent of their revenues from American markets.

The barometer after trading higher by nearly 115 points in the opening trade fell steeply barely one hour later to trade 106 points lower. And then throughout the session the index oscillated between positive and negative territories.

While profit selling pulled down the Sensex, brokers said the key index was up in opening trade on positive global cues.

The 30-share index moved between 8,601.41 and 8,854.81 points

The wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty, on the other hand, closed lower by 1.35 points at 2,656.45.

While the realty and banking indices rose on anticipation of fiscal and monetary package by the Centre to give a booster to the economy, IT and tech share were major losers.

However, the winner among the indices was the metal sector index which closed higher by 3.39 per cent at 4451.04 points with Tata Steel, Sterlite, NMDC Ltd and Jindal Steel gaining on fresh buying from investors.

Realty sector index was the second best performer by gaining 3.34 per cent at 1,559.69 points as shares of DLF rose by 5.44 per cent to Rs 191.90, Anant Raj by 10.94 per cent at Rs 49.70, Unitech by 1.75 per cent at Rs 26.20, Parasvnath by 4.86 per cent at Rs 34.50 and Ansal Infra by 2.03 per cent at Rs 25.15.

Consumer durable index rose by 2.70 per cent at Rs 1,713.78, Bank index by 2.50 per cent at 4,547.01, PSU index by 1.13 per cent at 4,500.52, capital goods by 1.08 per cent at 6,086.58, auto index by 0.85 at 2,173.11 and power index by 0.53 per cent at 1,586.05.

However, the rising trend was checked as IT sector index fell by 3.08 per cent at 2,400.09 points followed by Teck index by 2.16 per cent at 1,918.77 points. Oil and Gas index fell by 0.56 per cent at 5,367.91 points.

Stocks in healthcare and FMCG segment were also down on lack of buying support.