The BSE sensitive index recovered smartly from the inter-day low of 3062.05 to 3138.39 before finishing at 3133.42 with a small gain of 13.88 points as against the previous close of 3119.54. The BSE-100 index also improved by 7.67 points to 1386.72 over the last trading day's close of 1379.05 points.

Brokers said that the sentiment turned better towards the fag end of the session due to fresh support extended by the FIIs and domestic institutions. The sentiment was also cheered nearing the close of the day on reports of commerce minister R K Hedge's announcement of a series of measures to boost exports. Shares of computer software companies, which are major exporters, traded heavily inanticipation of more export sops.

Total volume of business remained low at Rs 771.20 crore with ITC registering the highest turnover of Rs 201.34 crore. ITC firmed up by 8 to 610. Satyam looked up by 2.25 to 487, SBI by 1.80 to 205.80, Pentafour Software by 3 to 588, Telco by 10.50 to 142 and Tisco by 4.75 to 103.50.

On the National Stock Exchange (NSE), pivotals started lower on the first day of the current settlement cycle and moved up during the course of trading on fresh buying and closed marginally higher. The S&P CNX Nifty started weak at 905.65, but recovered to end at 907.45, showing a marginal rise of 1.25 over the last close of 906.20. The market showed a total turnover of Rs 946.49 crore.