As a result, the Sensex opened firm at 5680.97 points and immediately touched a peak of 5688.17 points.

Reliance and SBI also opened strong, but came under huge selling pressure during the second half. But the major loss for the index came from HLL which showed a fall of more than five per cent at the end of the day. The close for the Sensex was 5520.69, whereas the low for the day was 5659.61 points.

The Nifty also showed a gain of 33 points. It closed at 1689 points, whereas the low and high for the day were 1721 points and 1656 points respectively.At the same time, the number of advances showed a sharp jump and stood at 1191; declines stood at 986 and around 154 stocks remained unchanged. The trading volume on the BSE was Rs 4854 crore.

The software sector continued to command a premium. Apart from Infosys, stocks like Global Tele, Satyam Computers, DSQ Software, Silverline and Rolta showed handsome gains.

Other stocks which hit the upper circuit were: Padmini Poly, Moser Baer, Raymond, Sterlite, Philips, ICICI Bank, VSNL, Kotak Mahindra Finance, Usha Beltron, Parekh Platinum, Denim Enterprises, Bits, Mobile Tele, Century. Other gainers were: Reliance Capital, Ranbaxy, Cipla, Siemens, Glaxo, LIC HF, ABB, Vindhya Tele, Nath Seeds, Blue Star, Nirma, Crompton Greaves, Fujitsu ICIM, Hero Honda, and Rhone Poulenc.

At the same time, stocks like HPCL, Mcdowell, Crest Communication, Polaris, Kale Consultants, KLG Systel, Optel Tele, BPCL, Shasun Chemicals, Lupin Lab, Nalco, Veronica Lab, EID Parry, Century Enka, Sri Adhikari, Maharaja International, Pradeep Drugs, Penta Products, Orchid Chemicals, Core Health, Nueland Lab, Jindal Steels, Vorin Lab, RPG Transmission, and Whirlpool hit the lower circuit.