Extended buying in late noon trades saw the index spurt to an intra-day high of 6,252. The Sensex finally ended higher at 6,239 - up 76 points. The Nifty also held on to its gains, and moved up 23 points to 1,955.Heavyweights and tech stocks contributed to the gains of the index.ITC shot up nearly 2% (Rs 27) to Rs 1,386. HLL, after a weak opening session, was up 1.31% (Rs 2) at Rs 151. Reliance was up a per cent (Rs 5) at Rs 506.Infosys remained firm through the session, and moved up 2% (Rs 40) to Rs 1,951. While Wipro gained 2.66% (Rs 17) to Rs 674, Satyam added 1.98% (Rs 8) to Rs 391.Banking stocks largely finished with losses. HDFC Bank rose 2.69% (Rs 14) to Rs 533. While ICICI Bank lost ground and slipped nearly 2% (Rs 6) to Rs 338, SBI was down a rupee at Rs 582.ONGC was up a per cent (Rs 7) at Rs 789.Hero Honda jumped 2.73% (Rs 14) to Rs 537. While Maruti logged 3.42% gains (Rs 14) to Rs 436, Tata Motors was up with a steady gain of Rs 2 at Rs 481.Bharti moved up 3.17% (Rs 6) to Rs 210 on improved third quarter results. While BHEL flared up 3% (Rs 21) to Rs 714, Hindalco at Rs 1,271 (up Rs 20 or 1.57%) also ended at higher levels.Grasim advanced 1.91% (Rs 24) to Rs 1,305. While ACC added 1.28% (Rs 4) to Rs 349, after remaining weak for better part of the trading session, Gujarat Ambuja clocked a per cent gain (Rs 4) to Rs 420.Ranbaxy surged 3.88% (Rs 38) to Rs 1,022. Other pharma counters ended on a divergent note.
