At the final count, the Sensex closed marginally higher at 4330.22, against Wednesday's close of 4326.42, up 3.80 points. It gained 63 points during the week. The S&P CNX Nifty closed the day by gaining 4.15 points at 1370.10 points.

Frenzied non-stop buying by FIIs, which stood at Rs 3,626 crores in the current month, forced the operators to cover their short positions on the last day of current settlement on the BSE and also ahead of long weekend holidays, dealers said.

Barring Digital Equipment, SSi Ltd, Tata Elxsi and Himachal Futuristic, which closed with smart gains on FIIs buying, other new economy counters remained depressed on profit-selling despite firm trend displayed by Nasdaq, which was up by another 19 points on Wednesday night.

Refinery counters were in the limelight due to investment buying on expectations of some good news in the ensuing budget. Hotel stocks were also in demand on better-than-expected third quarter results by EIH Ltd, while a majority of pharma and some cement shares suffered a setback on profit-selling. HFCL rose by Rs 9.40 to Rs 1,268.95, GACL was up by Rs 6.05 at Rs 186.15, HLL by Rs 3.1 at Rs 206.25 and HPCL gained by Rs 13.15.