Sensex gains 140 pts at 16,877

The Sensex opened with a negative gap of 96 points at 16,641. In the next thirty minutes, it fell further to recover to Friday's closing levels around noon. However, these gains could not be sustained and the market fell again, losing 191 points from the previous close.

But in the second half of the day, the markets were trading close to Friday's close. A late recovery helped the Sensex finally end (provisional) with a gain of 140 points at 16877.

The NSE Nifty closed (provisional) 38 points higher at  5021.