The Sensex opened on a flat note at 14,116, and dropped to negative zone in early deals. The index moved into positive zone soon - only to drop to a low of 14,090 in early noon deals.
Buying in ICICI Bank saw the index move back again into positive zone in late noon deals, and zoom to a high of 14,185. The Sensex finally closed with a gain of 17 points at 14,131.
The BSE Bankex moved up over 1% to 7499. The BSE SmallCap and MidCap indices, too, finished with gains today.
The market mood was bullish right through the session - out of 2,681 scrips traded, 1,602 logged gains and 1,018 declined today.
Index movers & shakers
Reliance Communications moved up 2.75% (Rs 12) to Rs 442.
ICICI Bank closed with a gain of 2.7% (Rs 26) at Rs 986.
L&T gained over 2% to Rs 1,553. SBI was up over 1% at Rs 1,223.
NTPC, Dr. Reddy's, Tata Motors and Reliance Energy also finished with gains today.
HDFC Bank dropped over 3% (Rs 36) to Rs 1,060. ONGC was down nearly 3% at Rs 894.
TCS slipped nearly 2% (Rs 22) to Rs 1,306. Infosys was down Rs 14 at Rs 2,203. Wipro, which reported a 41% rise in Q3 net today, ended marginally (Rs 3) lower at Rs 634.
Tech scrips in demand
Second-rung IT scrips logged sharp gains today. CMC zoomed 17% (Rs 177) to Rs 1,222. Rolta gained over 8% to Rs 304. i-flex advanced 6% to Rs 2,153.
Tata Elxsi, Mastek, 3i Infotech, NIIT Technologies, Tech Mahindra and Kale moved up over 9% each today.
Tech counters log huge turnover
Tech Mahindra was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 476 crore followed by Infosys (Rs 144 crore), 3i (Rs 117 crore), IFCI (Rs 113 crore) and CMC (Rs 89 crore).