The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 33 points at 5,872, but slipped to a low of 5,866 in early deals. Renewed buying in heavyweights like HLL saw the index bounce, and move in positive zone thereafter right through the session. After hitting a high of 5,936, the Sensex finally closed with a gain of 76 points at 5,915.

While 26 index scrips advanced acounting for 2.09 crore shares totalling Rs 823 crore, four stocks declined with lower volume of 24 lakh for Rs 142 crore. The bias was clearly towards buying today. The overall market,too, witnessed buying interest. Out of 2,282 scrips traded, 1,470 advanced and 752 declined today.

HLL added Rs 8 to Rs 213. ITC was up Rs 7 at Rs 992, but Reliance declined Rs 3 to Rs 570.

Infosys gained Rs 68 to Rs 5,632. While Wipro was up Rs 20 at Rs 1,757, Satyam was up Rs 8 at Rs 375.

ACC gained 5% (Rs 13) to Rs 259. Gujarat Ambuja was up Rs 8 at Rs 311. Grasim added Rs 8 to Rs 1,012.

SBI zoomed 5% (Rs 27) to Rs 565. HPCL was up 3% (Rs 13) at Rs 451. MTNL was up 4% at Rs 143. ONGC was steady right through the session, and finished with a gain of nearly 3% (Rs 21) at Rs 821. BHEL was up Rs 8 at Rs 516.

Cipla advanced 2.5% (Rs 33) to Rs 1,351. Dr. Reddy's and Ranbaxy also finished with gains.

Bharti Tele jumped 6% (Rs 6) to Rs 111.

Hero Honda added Rs 8 to Rs 457.

Media and tech scrips logged gains. Balaji Tele gained close to 6% to finish at Rs 106. ETC was up 3% at Rs 63. TV 18 moved up Rs 2 to Rs 192. Zee was up a rupee at Rs 151.

GTL jumped 8% to Rs 114. Polaris added 3% to Rs 248. Moser, i-flex, E-Serve, Mastek, HCL Tech, NIIT and Digital also moved up today.

Bank scrips also finished at higher levels. UCO Bank led the uptrend with a gain of 13% at Rs 23. Vijaya Bank advanced 11% to Rs 47. BoI gained 5% to Rs 69. Andhra Bank was up 5% at Rs 56. IOB, IDBI Bank, Syndicate, Canara, OBC, Union, ICICI Bank, Corporation and ING Vysya also closed in positive zones.

BoB, however, was down 2% at Rs 229. PNB and HDFC Bank finished marginally lower at Rs 241 and Rs 366, respectively.

PSU stocks attracted buying interest. Neyvelli added 6% to Rs 69. SCI moved up 6% to Rs 192. RCF, ITI, IOC and GAIL also closed with gains.