The Sensex opened firm with a gain of 19 points at 5,899. Though the market shot up in early deals following sustained buying in old economy stocks, the index was largely range-bound (moved between 50-60 points) till mid-noon deals, as most of the stocks were largely unchanged form their early highs with little movement.

Buying, however, gained momentum towards late noon deals, as acceleration in PSUs, cement and other select old economy stocks lifted the index to an intra-day high of 5,951.

The Sensex, with an intra-day movement of 71 points, pared gains towards the closing hours on lacklustre trading in tech stocks, and ended 55 points higher at 5,935. The Nifty rose 17 points to close at 1,885.

While 22 Sensex stocks advanced, eight declined on Monday. Advancing shares clocked a volume of 2.59 crore (25.9 million) amounting to Rs 1,227.63 crore (Rs 12.28 billion), and declining shares accounted for a volume of 1.06 crore (10.6 million) for Rs 437.66 crore (Rs 4.38 billion).

Reliance moved up 1.80% (Rs 11) to Rs 597. ITC clocked a per cent gain (Rs 11) to close at Rs 1,177. HLL, however, was weak through out the session, and lost 1.26% (Rs 2) to Rs 156.

HPCL, which spurted to an intra-day high of Rs 542, ended 6.32% higher (Rs 31) at Rs 530. SBI garnered nearly 2% gains (Rs 12) to close at Rs 628. While BHEL added 2.64% (Rs 16) to Rs 625, MTNL was up 1.59% (Rs 2) at Rs 144.

ONGC, after touching an intra-day high of Rs 878, spurted 6% (Rs 49) to close at Rs 851.

Grasim soared 3.41% (Rs 40) to close at Rs 1,225. While L&T added 1.48% (Rs 9) to Rs 605, Gujarat Ambuja moved up 2.71% (Rs 8) to Rs 322. ACC was up 1.57% (Rs 4) at Rs 277.

ICICI Bank attracted considerable buying support, and jumped 4.64% (Rs 14) to close at Rs 306. Tata Power advanced 2.29% (Rs 9) to Rs 406. Tisco moved up 1.63% (Rs 7) to close at Rs 450.

Zee also ended in the green at Rs 129 - up Rs 3 or 2.71%. Hindalco slipped from an intra-day high of Rs 1,340 to close with a marginal gain of Rs 8 at Rs 1,308.

Reliance Energy, however, slumped 3.47% (Rs 28) to close at Rs 773.

Cipla and Dr. Reddy's were up a per cent each at Rs 1,245 (up Rs 8) and Rs 1,029 (up Rs 7), respectively. Ranbaxy, too, closed up a per cent (Rs 11) at Rs 981.

Infosys (down Rs 133 or 2.55% to Rs 5,108) displayed weak trends through out the session. While Wipro dropped 2.92% (Rs 43) to Rs 1,440, Satyam dipped 1.78% (Rs 5) to end at Rs 303.

Hero Honda ended with a per cent gain (Rs 3) at Rs 538. Tata Motors was up a rupee at Rs 535. Bajaj, however, closed down a per cent (Rs 5) at Rs 923.