Moving in a range of 115 points, the Sensex touched a low of 4,736.70 and a high of 4,851.67 in intra-day trades. The NSE S&P CNX Nifty gained 18.40 points to close at 1,540.70.
Displaying extreme volatility, the market moved on either side of the break-even in the first half of the session, losing ground in initial trades on selling pressure. It recovered handsomely in the last half-hour of trading, to close firmly in the positive.
The market is also witnessing a rollover of positions to the next-month series in the derivatives segment.
FIIs were net buyers at Rs 138 crore on Thursday after being net sellers on the previous three days. They had pulled out a net Rs 87 crore on Wednesday, more than double the total figure for the previous days.
On Monday, FIIs were net sellers at Rs 20.40 crore and on Tuesday at Rs 12.40 crore. Mutual funds were also net buyers at Rs 137.40 crore on Thursday.
Heavyweights HLL was up 1.89 per cent at Rs 180.30, ITC was up 1.77 per cent at Rs 875.60 and Reliance Industries was up 2.35 per cent at Rs 460.50, all contributing to the gains in the index. State Bank of India was down by 0.12 per cent at Rs 449.15.
Tech bellwether Infosys Tech was up 1.30 per cent at Rs 4,672.05. Satyam Computer was up 0.11 per cent at Rs 314.25 and Wipro was up 3.64 per cent at Rs 1,451.10.
Old economy pivotals Grasim was up 2.87 per cent at Rs 854, MTNL was up 2.45 per cent at Rs 110.65, Tata Steel was up 2.32 per cent at Rs 344.20, HDFC Bank was up 2 per cent at Rs 302.95 and Tata Power was up 1.53 per cent at Rs 258.25.
Tata Motors was up 3.06 per cent at Rs 387.50. Reliance Energy closed at Rs 446.70, up 4.36 per cent over its previous close. ICICI Bank was up 3.50 per cent at Rs 235.
