The markets opened with a positive gap this morning on firm cues from Asian markets. The US markets too had edged up on Monday, following passage of the US healthcare bill.

The Sensex opened at 17,423 and surged to a high of 17,531. However, selling pressure in Bharti Airtel and ICICI Bank saw the index shed 174 points from its high to a low of 17,357.

The index recovered in late noon trades as market heavy-weight, Reliance moved up. The Sensex finally ended with a gain of 40 points at 17,451. The Nifty ended at 5,225. - up 20 points.

The BSE healthcare index surged to a new high of 5,299. The index finally ended up 1.5% at 5,292.

The oil, power and metal sectors also edged up.

Bharti Airtel shed 3% at Rs 307. Tata Motors dropped 2.7% to Rs 739.

DLF slipped 2% to Rs 295. Grasim and ACC dipped 1.3% each to Rs 957 and Rs 2,849, respectively.

ICICI Bank, Wipro and Sun Pharma were down marginally. However, HDFC Bank added 2.5% to Rs 1,885.

Reliance led the recovery and edged up 1.4% at Rs 1,089. Tata Power has added 1.4% to Rs 1,354.

Tata Steel, NTPC and ONGC advanced 1% each.

The BSE market breadth was marginally negative. Out of 2,879 stocks traded, 1,508 declined while 1,264 advanced.

Tata Motors topped the value chart on the BSE with a turnover of Rs 78.91 crore, followed by SBI (Rs 71.75 crore), Reliance (Rs 68.84 crore), HDIL (Rs 65.91 crore) and Tata Steel (58.60 crore).

The volume chart was led by Syncom Healthcare with trades of over 8.35 million shares, followed by Suven life Sciences (7.17 million), Facor Alloys (6.17 million), Krishna Life (5.56 million) and Alok Industries (4.56 million).