The market opened marginally lower in the morning with the BSE Sensex opening at 3,917 from yesterday's close of 3,931, however buying in select index stocks pulled the benchmark index higher and ended the day with a gain of 23.29 points at 3,954.83.

At NSE, the S&P CNX Nifty reached an intra-day high of 1249.10 before closing at 1246.75 points a rise of 6.50 points. Select share prices continued their upward march on Tuesday following FIIs heavy buying in technology stocks.

The highlight of the day was that most of the leading IT scrips closed near their day's high quotation. Dealers said the main factor which fuelled the price rise in technology stocks was heavy short covering by operators on account of last day of settlement at NSE.

However there was some select buying in some of the old economy stocks. But most of the top old economy stocks remained lacklustre as major buying by FII were confined to technology stocks. "Market is moving in a narrow range in the last two days as the market is eagerly awaiting the outcome of US presidential elections. The result will be out by Wednesday 10.30 am because of this markets are expected to be fairly volatile in the morning session tomorrow," a dealer said.

Among the major gainers lists were Thermax up 7.81 per cent at Rs 74.55, Escorts up 6.58 per cent at Rs 91.55. Other gainers of the day were Reliance Capital, Uniter Breweries, IPCL.

Infosys stock moved up following select buying from FIIs closed at Rs 7,697.20. The old economy stocks were major losers on account of profit booking. These stocks have risen considerably in the last few days. TVS Suzuki lost (5.08%) at Rs 169.20. Novartis lost 3.88% to close at Rs 562.90.

Punjab Tractor was also down and closed at Rs 178.65 from its previous close of Rs 183.65.