After opening with a positive gap of 61 points, the index touched a low of 13,627, and then began to move up. Metal, energy and banking stocks witnessed fresh buying which led the index to a high of 13,841 - up 270 points from the previous close.

The index retreated from higher levels in late noon deals and dipped to a low of 13,593 - down 248 points from the day's high. The Sensex finally ended with a gain of 122 points at 13,692.

The market breadth was positive - out of 2,679 stocks traded, 1,349 advanced, 1,241 declined and 89 were unchanged on Wednesday.

The NSE Nifty was up34 points at 4,161.

THE MOVERS...

Sterlite surged 8.8% to Rs 489. HDFC Bank [Get Quote] and Tata Steel [Get Quote] rallied  above 3.5% each to Rs 1,283 and Rs 487, respectively.

Reliance Infrastructure and Satyam [Get Quote] were up 2.7% each at Rs 888 and Rs 340, respectively.

Grasim [Get Quote] and BHEL advanced 2.5% each at Rs 1,937 and Rs 1,666, respectively. Reliance Industries [Get Quote] was up 2.3% at Rs 2,056. Bharti Airtel gained 2.1% at Rs 811. Mahindra and Mahindra advanced 1.6% at Rs 558.

DLF, State Bank of India [Get Quote] and Reliance Communications [Get Quote] gained above 1.2% each at Rs 400, Rs 1,522 and Rs 371, respectively.

Hindustan Unilever, Larsen & Toubro, Maruti [Get Quote], Hindalco [Get Quote], ONGC [Get Quote], Jaiprakash Associates [Get Quote] and TCS [Get Quote] gained less than one per cent.

...AND THE SHAKERS

Wipro [Get Quote] plunged 5% to Rs 371. Tata Motors [Get Quote] dipped 1.6% to Rs 388. Infosys [Get Quote] was down 1.3% at Rs 1,523. TCS shed 1% at Rs 713.

HDFC, NTPC, ITC and Maruti lost less than one per cent.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

Reliance Capital [Get Quote] topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 259.22 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 229.66 crore), Austral Coke (Rs 149.21 crore), Sterlite Industries (Rs 149.21 crore) and ICICI Bank [Get Quote] (Rs 134.5 crore).

Sesa Goa [Get Quote] led the volume chart with trades of around 96 lakh shares followed by Reliance Natural Resources [Get Quote] (87.32 lakh), Jaiprakash Associates (75.17 lakh), Cals Refinery (63.13 lakh) and Austral Coke (60.67 lakh).