Sensex, Nifty end in green; Sebi to probe midcap crash

Technology firms such as Infosys rose on hopes the 2013-14 budget would provide incentives for exporters, while ONGC fell on worries about a potentially higher oil subsidy burden.

Infosys provisionally rose 2.8 percent, while ONGC fell 2.15 percent, ahead of the 2013-14 Budget to be presented on Thursday.

Sadbhav Engineering rallied over 3 percent on getting order worth Rs 697.35 crore from CIL arm Northern Coalfields

Uttam Galva Steel fell 4 percent as board of directors will consider raising funds via QIP tomorrow

Orient Green Power Company rose 10% as the Shriram Group, the promoter group announced an open offer to buy 26 percent stake in the company at a price of Rs 15 per share (nearly 15 percent higher over its Friday's closing price).

Ranbaxy Laboratories was up 5 percent. HSBC raised its rating on shares of Ranbaxy Laboratories to 'overweight' from 'underweight' after the Indian drug maker said it would resume production of a generic version of cholesterol fighter Lipitor for sale in the United States.

However, shares of a host of mid-cap and small-cap companies today crashed in the stock market, plunging as much as 60 percent in some cases, amid panic selling on speculations of sale of pledged shares. (Read more)

Stock exchanges and market regulator Sebi immediately began looking into the matter to probe any possible foul play after a huge sell-off was witnessed in shares of more than a dozen companies towards noon, a senior official said.

The BSE Midcap and Small-cap indices were down 1.33 percent each.

After the crash, these midcaps look good from an investment point of view, says market expert Ambreesh Baliga. "Most of them (investors) feel that midcaps across have this (corporate governance) issue, which is not really the case. So, you have those pockets where one can look at buying but surely not from the stocks, which have fallen today," he told CNBC-TV18 in an interview.