Shortly after opening above the 5,800 levels, the Sensex trimmed its gains to touch an intra-day low of 5,798. The market, however, recovered soon and remained firm throughout the opening session, as buying spree in almost all the sectors pushed the index above the 5,900-mark to an intra-day high of 5,905.
However, profit-taking in select old economy stocks saw the index shed most of its gains towards the closing hours.
The Sensex finally settled with a gain of 50 points at 5,838. The Nifty gained 16 points to close at 1,857.
While 20 Sensex stocks advanced, 10 declined on Monday.
Reliance moved up 1.43% (Rs 8) to Rs 574. While ITC was up Rs 3 at Rs 1,088, HLL closed up a rupee at Rs 157.
Infosys ended firm with a gain of 3.45% (Rs 172) at Rs 5,172. While Satyam added 2.35% (Rs 7) to Rs 313, Wipro jumped 3.20% (Rs 43) to Rs 1,392.
BHEL rose sharply to close with a gain of 5.10% (Rs 32) at Rs 654. HPCL closed with a marginal gain of Rs 2 at Rs 528. While SBI ended with a per cent loss (Rs 7) at Rs 615, MTNL ended a rupee lower at Rs 140.
Hindalco was up Rs 32 or 2.44% at Rs 1,347. Reliance Energy (up Rs 5 to Rs 800) and Tisco (up Rs 3 to Rs 406) ended with marginal gains. Zee was up 1.23% (Rs 2) at Rs 140.
Tata Power surged 5% (Rs 20) to close at Rs 413.
L&T attracted buying support, and notched up 3.68% gains (Rs 22) to Rs 609. While Grasim ended with a gain of 1.32% (Rs 15) at Rs 1,155, Gujarat Ambuja closed marginally higher at Rs 307. ACC, however, was down a rupee at Rs 263
Tata Motors advanced 2.60% (Rs 13) to Rs 509. While Bajaj lost a per cent (Rs 7) to Rs 911, Hero Honda ended in the red with a rupee loss at Rs 494.
Bharti dropped 4.37% (Rs 7) to Rs 164. While ICICI Bank slipped 1.11% (Rs 3) to Rs 295, ONGC was down a per cent (Rs 7) at Rs 852.
While Cipla and Ranbaxy closed up a tad each at Rs 1,184 and Rs 989 respectively, Dr. Reddy's was down 1.45% (Rs 14) at Rs 977.