The Sensex on Thursday opened with a gain of 64 points at 5,750. The index, thereafter, moved in a range of 60-70 points till the mid-noon deals.
The markets firmed up towards the last hour of the trading session, as fresh gains in select heavyweight, cement, tech, auto and other old economy stocks saw the index spurt to an intra-day high of 5,773.
The Sensex closed with a gain of 71 points at 5,757. The Nifty added 23 points to end at 1,833.
While 24 Sensex stocks advanced, six declined today.
Heavyweight, PSU and cement stocks attracted considerable buying support today.
Reliance gained ground in the mid-noon trades, and scaled up 2% (Rs 11) to close at Rs 541. HLL was up 2% (Rs 3) at Rs 146. ITC, however, ended with a loss of Rs 8 at Rs 1,048.
SBI rose 2% (Rs 13) to Rs 656. While HPCL moved up 1.81% (Rs 8) to Rs 472, MTNL was up 1.69% (Rs 2) at Rs 151. BHEL ended 1.25% lower (Rs 7) at Rs 579.
Grasim flared up 3.77% (Rs 45) to Rs 1,232. While L&T jumped 2.11% (Rs 12) to Rs 596, Gujarat Ambuja advanced nearly 2% (Rs 6) to Rs 345. ACC, however, closed down a tad at Rs 289.
Infosys ended with a steady gain of Rs 39 at Rs 5,300. While Satyam added 1.26% (Rs 4) to Rs 329, Wipro lost a per cent (Rs 12) to Rs 1,593.
Hero Honda gained 2.33% (Rs 11) to Rs 492.
Hindalco shot up 4.45% (Rs 49) to Rs 1,145. While Tata Power advanced 2.19% (Rs 8) to Rs 390, ONGC at Rs 862 (up Rs 14 or 1.70%) also ended at higher levels.
Tisco perked up 3.18% (Rs 11) to close at Rs 366.
While Ranbaxy clocked a per cent gain (Rs 11) to Rs 1,051, Dr. Reddy's added 1.27% (Rs 11) to end at Rs 886.
