The Sensex opened 62 points lower at 16,691. Fresh buying in the opening trades saw the index move into the positive zone.

The index touched a high of 17,015 - up 389 points from the day's low. The Sensex finally ended with a gain of 225 points at 16,978.

The market breadth was marginally positive - out of 2,750 stocks traded, 1,425 advanced, 1,239 declined and 86 were unchanged on Wednesday.

The NSE Nifty settled with a gain of 54 points at 5,012.

INDEX MOVERS...

TCS [Get Quote] was the biggest gainer among the Sensex stocks today, up 7% at Rs 970.

Hindalco [Get Quote] surged 6.8% to Rs 192. Infosys [Get Quote] and Tata Steel [Get Quote] gained over 4% to Rs 1,826 and Rs 886, respectively.

Maruti [Get Quote] was up 3.5% to Rs 797. Bharti Airtel [Get Quote] and Reliance Infra added over 3% each to Rs 848 and Rs 1,425, respectively.

HDFC [Get Quote] advanced 2.7% at Rs 2,731.

Jaiprakash Associates [Get Quote] and Reliance Communications [Get Quote] rallied 2.5% each to Rs 260 and Rs 559, respectively.

Ranbaxy [Get Quote] and Wipro [Get Quote] gained 2% each to Rs 495 and Rs 504, respectively.

Grasim [Get Quote] and DLF were up 1.3% each to Rs 2,249 and Rs 623, respectively.

Reliance, Satyam [Get Quote], Tata Motors [Get Quote] and ICICI Bank [Get Quote] were the other major gainers.

...AND THE SHAKERS

On the other hand, ONGC [Get Quote] was the biggest loser today, has plunged over 5.8% to Rs 938.

ACC and Ambuja Cements tumbled 2% each to Rs 667 and Rs 109, respectively.

Mahindra & Mahindra declined 1.6% at Rs 656.

HDFC Bank, NTPC and Hindustan Unilever slipped over 1% each to Rs 1,465, Rs 190 and Rs 243, respectively.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

Aishwarya Telecom led the value chart with a turnover of Rs 929.97 crore followed by Reliance Petroleum [Get Quote] (Rs 238.27 crore), Reliance Capital [Get Quote] (Rs 168.58 crore), Tata Steel (Rs 167.74 crore) and Idea Cellular [Get Quote] (Rs 161.68 crore).

Aishwarya Telecom, also, topped the volume chart with trades of around 7.91 crore shares followed by IFCI (1.72 crore), Idea Cellular (1.53 crore), Ispat (1.49 crore), and Reliance Petroleum (1.32 crore).