The Sensex opened with a huge positive gap of 418 points at 16,541 on positive cues from the global markets. The index moved up to a high of 16,683 in early deals.
Profit-taking at higher levels saw the index drop to lower levels as the day progressed, and drifted into negative zone towards the closing bell. The index dropped to a low of 16,064 - an intra-day swing of 619 points.
The Sensex finally closed with a marginal gain of five points at 16,128.
The Nifty closed with a gain of six points at 4,872.
The BSE market breadth turned negative towards the close - out of 2,763 scrips traded, 1,441 declined and 1,265 closed with gains on Wednesday.
Index gainers
Cipla closed with a gain of over 4% at Rs 204.
Grasim added 3.7% at Rs 2,893.
Reliance Energy hit a high of Rs 1,392 but finished with a gain of 3% at Rs 1,328.
ICICI Bank was up nearly 3% at Rs 880.
Bharti and HDFC Bank closed with gains of 2.7% each at Rs 811 and Rs 1,368, respectively.
Reliance was up 1% at Rs 2,376.
And losers
Infosys slipped over 3% to Rs 1,384. Satyam was down 4% at Rs 379.
Tata Steel dropped over 6% to Rs 766. Hindalco declined over 5% to Rs 192.
DLF slipped nearly 5% to Rs 713. SBI was down over 4% at Rs 1,808.
Most active counters
Debutant REC was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 825 crore followed by RNRL (Rs 268 crore), RPL (Rs 207 crore), RIL (Rs 198 crore) and GSS America (Rs 194 crore).
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