The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 28 points at 6,471. After crossing the 6,500-mark in early trades, the index moved in a range of 6,510-6,515 till early noon trades.
The markets witnessed strong upward movement in late noon trades as steep rally in most of the counters lifted the index to an intra-day high of 6,555.
Profit-taking, however, in select counters saw the Sensex pare some gains towards the fag-end and finally end the session at 6,511 - up 68 points over its last close.
The Nifty, too, came off its highs to end 14 points higher at 2,029.
While 20 Sensex stocks advanced, 10 declined today. Advancing shares accounted for a volume of 1.04 crore amounting to Rs 548.45 crore, and declining shares registered a volume of 12 lakh for Rs 71.84 crore.
ONGC gained 1.19% (Rs 10) to Rs 861. While Reliance clocked 1.24% gains (Rs 7) to Rs 567, HLL ended marginally higher at Rs 135. ITC, however, ended a rupee lower at Rs 1,319.
Infosys shed some gains on profit-taking to end 1.47% higher (Rs 32) at Rs 2,191. While Satyam advanced 2.82% (Rs 11) to Rs 399, Wipro slipped into the red to close at Rs 644 - down Rs 2.
HDFC Bank rose 3% (Rs 16) to Rs 535. While ICICI Bank added nearly 2% (Rs 8) to Rs 398, SBI was up a tad at Rs 666.
Zee jumped 3% (Rs 4) to Rs 134. HDFC at Rs 709 (up Rs 18 or 2.67%), L&T at Rs 1,010 (up Rs 36 or 3.71%), Tata Power at Rs 351 (up Rs 10 or 3%) and Tisco at Rs 418 (up Rs 5 or 1.28%) ended on a firm note.
Dr. Reddy's shot up 2.83% (Rs 21) to Rs 772. While Ranbaxy notched up 1.68% gains (Rs 18) to Rs 1,072, Cipla added 1.58% (Rs 4) to Rs 258.
Maruti logged 2.12% gains (Rs 9) to Rs 421, and Tata Motors was up a rupee at Rs 417. Bajaj, however, remained weak and lost a per cent (Rs 11) to close at Rs 1,105. Hero Honda was down a rupee at Rs 541.
Gujarat Ambuja (up Rs 6 or 1.46% to Rs 410) ended with steady gains. While Grasim lost 1.17% (Rs 14) to Rs 1,213, ACC was down a notch at Rs 359.