The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 135 points at 16,289. Follow-up buying in technology stocks saw the index touch a high of 16,414 in early trades.
Profit-taking in noon deals saw the index pare gains and drop to a low of 16,199. The Sensex finally ended with a gain of 90 points at 16,244.
The market breadth was fairly positive - out of 2,754 stocks traded, 1,862 advanced, 818 declined and 74 were unchanged on Wednesday.
The NSE Nifty closed with a gain of eight points at 4,887.
Index movers
Infosys zoomed 6% to Rs 1,600. Wipro surged 5.4% to Rs 447. Satyam and TCS ended on a flat note at Rs 454 and Rs 974, respectively.
Reliance Energy rallied 3.5% to Rs 1,345. Hindalco moved up 1.7% to Rs 177, and Reliance added 1.3% to Rs 2,645.
Reliance Communications, ICICI Bank and ITC were up over 1% each at Rs 526, Rs 816 and Rs 210, respectively.
And the shakers
Ambuja Cements dropped 3.6% to Rs 112. BHEL declined over 3% to Rs 1,778.
Jaiprakash Associates slipped 2.3% to Rs 214, and Tata Motors was down 2% to Rs 613.
NTPC and Hindustan Unilever declined 1.8% each to Rs 188 and Rs 241, respectively.
Most active counters
Orchid Chemicals topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 783 crore followed by Reliance Petroleum (Rs 355 crore), Reliance (Rs 291.25 crore), Reliance Natural Resources (284.25 crore) and OnMobile Global (Rs 199.25 crore).
Reliance Natural Resources led the volume chart with trades of around 2.59 crore shares followed by Orchid Chemicals (2.47 crore), Reliance Petroleum (1.86 crore), Sita Shree Foods (1.44 crore) and Kashyap Tech (1.25 crore).
