The Sensex on Wednesday opened with a gain of 19 points at 5,666. After registering decent gains in the early morning deals, the markets, on sluggish trading in most of the sectors, moved in a range-bound mode till mid-noon deals.

However, profit-taking soon emerged in most of the counters, which saw the index erase most of its gains to touch an intra-day low of 5,649.

The last half-an-hour of the trading session witnessed some hectic buying in select cement, PSU, auto and tech stocks, which saw the Sensex finally end with a gain of 39 points at 5,686. The Nifty also bounced back from its intra-day lows to end above the 1,800-mark at 1,810 - up 17 points.

HPCL ended higher with a gain of 2.60% (Rs 12) at Rs 463. While SBI added Rs 2 to close at Rs 643, MTNL was up a rupee at Rs 148. BHEL, however, was down a rupee at Rs 586.

Grasim perked up 3% (Rs 35) to Rs 1,187. While L&T advanced 3.43% (Rs 19) to Rs 583, ACC moved up 1.42% (Rs 4) at Rs 290. Gujarat Ambuja closed up a per cent (Rs 3) at Rs 339.

Tata Motors moved up 1.52% (Rs 7) to Rs 482. While Hero Honda gained 1.36% (Rs 6) to Rs 481, Bajaj rolled back into the green to close with a marginal gain of Rs 6 at Rs 932.

Infosys clocked a per cent gain (Rs 44) to Rs 5,260. While Wipro moved up a per cent (Rs 11) at Rs 1,605, Satyam closed up a rupee at Rs 325.

HDFC jumped 3.85% (Rs 24) to Rs 645. ONGC (up Rs 6 to Rs 848), Reliance Energy (up Rs 9 or 1.27% to Rs 733), HDFC Bank (up Rs 6 or 1.64% to Rs 382) and Bharti (up Rs 5 or 3.25% to Rs 173) ended with decent gains. Tata Power and Tisco were up Rs 5 each at Rs 382 and Rs 355, respectively.

ITC (down Rs 3 to Rs 1,058) and Reliance (down a rupee to Rs 530) ended on a sluggish note. HLL, however, closed up a tad at Rs 143.

Zee dropped 3.86% (Rs 5) to Rs 131. Hindalco was down a per cent (Rs 7) at Rs 1,096. ICICI Bank lost 1.71% (Rs 5) to finish at Rs 302.

Dr. Reddy's and Cipla ended with marginal gains at Rs 1,374 and Rs 875, respectively. Ranbaxy, however, was down Rs 2 at Rs 1,040.