The Sensex opened a tad higher at 14,142 -- up five points -- but slipped soon to a low of 14,052 on account of weakness in technology stocks following the rupee appreciation.

The rupee, in morning trades, dropped below the 41/$-mark. However, steady buying in pharma, FMCG and banking stocks helped the index rebound into positive zone. The Sensex rallied to a high of 14,238, and finally settled with a gain of 81 points at 14,218. The NSE Nifty ended at 4,167, up 25 points.

The index has gained almost 600 points in the last four trading sessions.

The BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices advanced 1% each to 5805 and 7075, respectively.

The FMCG index surged 2.5% to 1838. The Healthcare index gained 1.7% to 3832, and the Oil & Gas index moved up 1.4% to 7303. The Auto index and Bankex were up over 1% each at 4942 and 7237, respectively. The IT index, however, declined 1.3% to 4962.

The market breadth was positive - out of 2,599 stocks traded, 1,459 advanced, 1,060 declined and 80 were unchanged on Wednesday.

Movers & Shakers

Ranbaxy soared nearly 6% to Rs 369, and Cipla surged 5.4% to Rs 252. Hero Honda zoomed 4% to Rs 687. Tata Motors rallied over 2% to Rs 759. ITC surged 3.4% to Rs 162, and HLL added 2% to Rs 211.

Grasim gained 2.6% at Rs 2,442. ACC added nearly 2% to Rs 833, and Gujarat Ambuja was up 1% at Rs 121. ONGC moved up 2.5% to Rs 973. Reliance rallied over 1% to Rs 1,600. HDFC advanced over 2% to Rs 1,746. HDFC Bank gained 1.8% at Rs 1,031, and ICICI Bank was up 1.2% at Rs 962.

Infosys dropped 2% to Rs 2,018. Satyam slipped 1.8% to Rs 466. Tata Steel shed 1.4% at Rs 571. Bharti Airtel, NTPC and Larsen & Toubro were down around 1% each at Rs 863, Rs 157 and Rs 1,688, respectively.

Most Active Counters

TCS topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 330 crore followed by Indiabulls Real Estate (Rs 200.25 crore), Reliance (Rs 138 crore), GTL (Rs 121.30 crore) and Hexaware (Rs 118.20 crore).

IFCI led the volume chart with trades of around 1.94 crore shares followed Reliance Natural (1.07 crore), G V Films (83.58 lakh), Tata Teleservices (76 lakh) and Nagarjuna Fertilisers (73.22 lakh).