The markets shot back into the positive territory towards the closing hours, as gains led by techs, cement, PSUs and other select old economy counters triggered the upsurge, which saw the index spurt to an intra-day high of 5,736.

The sentiment, however, was bearish till mid-noon trades, as the index, which opened 18 points lower at 5,632, came under sustained selling pressure and slipped below the 5,600-mark to touch a low of 5,571 in mid-morning deals.

Buying resumed in late noon deals and picked up momentum towards the fag-end, as the Sensex -- which was battered in the last three sessions -- finally signed-off the last day of the trading week with a gain of 50 points at 5,700.

The Nifty closed with a gain of seven points at 1,812.

While 20 Sensex stocks advanced, 10 declined on Friday.

Infosys bounced back from a low of Rs 4,777 and closed with a gain of 4.24% (Rs 206) to Rs 5,060. While Wipro advanced 2.20% (Rs 32) to Rs 1,470, Satyam rose 3.43% (Rs 10) to Rs 303.

Hindalco at Rs 1,325 (up Rs 36 or 2.82%), HDFC at Rs 631 (up Rs 17 or 2.79%) and ICICI Bank at Rs 289 (up Rs 9 or 3.22%) scaled up on fresh buying support. Tisco and Tata Power also ended at higher levels at Rs 422 (up Rs 3) and Rs 395, respectively.

HPCL, on renewed buying support, jumped 2.98% (Rs 14) to Rs 498. MTNL was up 1.83% (Rs 3) at Rs 142. SBI and BHEL, however, ended with marginal losses at Rs 599 and Rs 588, respectively.

L&T gained 1.84% (Rs 10) to Rs 576. While Gujarat Ambuja added 2.19% (Rs 6) to Rs 304, ACC gained 1.89% (Rs 5) to Rs 261. Grasim, however, lost 1.18% (Rs 13) to close at Rs 1,095.

Bajaj added 1.64% (Rs 14) to Rs 872. While Hero Honda ended with a marginal gain of Rs 2 at Rs 474, Tata Motors closed up a per cent (Rs 3) at Rs 489.

ITC shed 1.15% (Rs 13) to close at Rs 1,135. Reliance ended down a rupee at Rs 563. HLL moved up 2% (Rs 3) to close at Rs 157.

Dr. Reddy's ended weak with a loss of 3% (Rs 32) at Rs 1,033. Cipla also shed Rs 3 to Rs 1,221. Ranbaxy, however, gained 1.15% (Rs 11) to Rs 963.

ONGC dropped 3.41% (Rs 28) to Rs 801. While HDFC Bank slipped 1.63% (Rs 6) to close at Rs 369, Zee dropped 2.97% (Rs 4) to Rs 118.