After opening with a positive gap of 61 points, the index touched a low of 13,627, and then began to move up. Metal, energy and banking stocks witnessed fresh buying which led the index to a high of 13,841 - up 270 points from the previous close.
The index retreated from higher levels in late noon deals and dipped to a low of 13,593 - down 248 points from the day's high. The Sensex finally ended with a gain of 122 points at 13,692.
The market breadth was positive - out of 2,679 stocks traded, 1,349 advanced, 1,241 declined and 89 were unchanged on Wednesday.
The NSE Nifty was up34 points at 4,161.
THE MOVERS...
Sterlite surged 8.8% to Rs 489. HDFC Bank and Tata Steel rallied above 3.5% each to Rs 1,283 and Rs 487, respectively.
Reliance Infrastructure and Satyam were up 2.7% each at Rs 888 and Rs 340, respectively.
Grasim and BHEL advanced 2.5% each at Rs 1,937 and Rs 1,666, respectively. Reliance Industries was up 2.3% at Rs 2,056. Bharti Airtel gained 2.1% at Rs 811. Mahindra and Mahindra advanced 1.6% at Rs 558.
DLF, State Bank of India and Reliance Communications gained above 1.2% each at Rs 400, Rs 1,522 and Rs 371, respectively.
Hindustan Unilever, Larsen & Toubro, Maruti, Hindalco, ONGC, Jaiprakash Associates and TCS gained less than one per cent.
...AND THE SHAKERS
Wipro plunged 5% to Rs 371. Tata Motors dipped 1.6% to Rs 388. Infosys was down 1.3% at Rs 1,523. TCS shed 1% at Rs 713.
HDFC, NTPC, ITC and Maruti lost less than one per cent.
MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS
Reliance Capital topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 259.22 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 229.66 crore), Austral Coke (Rs 149.21 crore), Sterlite Industries (Rs 149.21 crore) and ICICI Bank (Rs 134.5 crore).
Sesa Goa led the volume chart with trades of around 96 lakh shares followed by Reliance Natural Resources (87.32 lakh), Jaiprakash Associates (75.17 lakh), Cals Refinery (63.13 lakh) and Austral Coke (60.67 lakh).
