The excellent third quarter results posted by the software major Wipro Ltd improved the market sentiment significantly and the benchmark indices closed the day with moderate gains.

BSE's Sensex opened moderately firm at 4149.25 points on the back of a firm trend witnessed by the Nasdaq Composite Index. It attracted profit-booking in the early session, which brought down the Sensex to the intra-day low of 4137.31 points. It further rose to an intra-day peak of 4201.94 points on back of sustained short-covering by operators and ended the day at 4194.46 points, a gain of 81.25 points. S&P CNX Nifty also followed suit and was up 23.15 points to close at 1329.10 as compared to the previous close of 1305.95. Operators looked optimistic, slowly picking-up the net investments of foreign institutional investors (FIIs) in the new year. They were also enthused by an upbeat earnings forecast from technology bellwether IBM in the New York Stock market followed by announcements of excellent third quarter performance back home by Digital Equipments and Wipro. Dealers said operators were busy, not only in hectic short-covering of their positions but they also by fresh commitments at the last day of thecurrent settlement in response to another sharp rise of about 86 points in the Nasdaq Composite Index. Market sources said the benchmark is in a bull orbit and also predicted the onset of the pre-budget rally during which the benchmark may touch 4600 level, they said.