The Sensex bounced back from a low of 4,942 touched in early deals to remain in positive territory thereafter on gains in most of the counters.
After exhibiting steady gains till early noon deals, the markets flared up in mid-noon trades following steep surge in select old and new economy stocks, which saw the index zoom past the 5,000-mark. After touching an intra-day high of 5,010, weakness in heavyweight and auto majors saw the index shed most of its gains towards the closing hours.
The Sensex finally settled with a gain of 24 points at 4,975. The Nifty added 13 points to close at 1,572.
While 18 Sensex stocks advanced, 12 declined today. Advancing shares accounted for a volume of 1.50 crore amounting to Rs 593.16 crore, and declining shares registered a volume of 67 lakh for Rs 270.96 crore.
PSUs, pharma and select old economy stocks attracted decent buying support.
ONGC surged 4.39% (Rs 29) to Rs 697. SBI and MTNL closed up a tad each at Rs 440 and Rs 131, respectively. BHEL and HPCL, however, ended with marginal losses.
Cipla advanced 2.50% (Rs 6) to Rs 239. While Dr. Reddy's was up 1.46% (Rs 11) at Rs 763, Ranbaxy added Rs 4 to Rs 972.
Zee spurted 4.70% (Rs 6) to Rs 132. ICICI Bank attracted considerable buying support, and soared 3.33% (Rs 8) to Rs 253. While Tisco gained 1.96% (Rs 7) to Rs 345, Tata Power was up a rupee at Rs 258.
Tech and cement pivotals also ended at higher levels.
Satyam was up a per cent (Rs 2) at Rs 331. While Wipro added Rs 3 to Rs 529, Infosys was up a rupee at Rs 1,479.
Grasim logged a per cent gain (Rs 9) to Rs 967. While Gujarat Ambuja moved up 1.48% (Rs 4) to Rs 280, ACC ended marginally lower at Rs 233.
Heavyweight and auto majors, however, slipped from higher levels owing to profit-taking.
ITC declined a per cent (Rs 9) to Rs 1,015. Reliance and HLL were down a rupee each at Rs 423 and Rs 122, respectively.
Hero Honda shed 2.25% (Rs 10) to Rs 452. While Tata Motors lost 1.46% (Rs 6) to Rs 408, Bajaj ended down a notch at Rs 853. Maruti, however, finished a tad higher at Rs 426.
Hindalco slipped a per cent (Rs 10) to Rs 1,079.