The last day of the trading cycle on BSE, witnessed a spate of short covering by local punters. While the BSE closed at 2 pm, operators were seen shifting their positions to NSE, which saw the S&P CNX Nifty index close higher at 839.50 points, registering a net gain of 3.85 points.

Pivotals like Zee Telefilms, HLL and ITC were quoted at a premium of over 1 per cent on the NSE.

FII purchases on the local bourses was pegged at a high of Rs 23.4 crore, while the domesticinstitutions also bought stocks worth Rs 22 crore.According to market sources, FIIs were rumoured to have bought stocks like Bajaj Auto, HLL, Castrol, Ranbaxy Labs and MTNL. Sources, also hinted at the purchases made by the FIIs at the GDR markets as well, which was reflective in their prices. FIIs sales were pegged the counters of Telco, Tisco and ICICI.

The Skindia GDR index shot up by 2.80 per cent to trade at 545.42 points, while the Bajaj Auto GDR was traded at a premium of 32.26 per cent at $ 18.25. Bajaj Auto closed at Rs 595 registering a net gain of 6 per cent on the local bourses. The Ranbaxy GDR was quoted at a premium of over 16 per cent at $ 15.63, while the GDR of MTNL was quoted at a premium of 26.24 per cent at $ 11.18 during mid day trading.

Bears continued to tighten their grip at the Telco counter, with the scrip hitting a new low of Rs 103.85. The stock was locked at the lower end of the price band with a huge volume of over 46 lakh shares exchanging hands on the local bourses.According to market sources, Capital International sold huge chunks of Telco during the initial phase of the session. "The booking figures of Santro seemed to be left the local players disillusioned who had pitched their expectations quite high on the Indica front," explained a BSE broker. Bulls had a field day at the refinery counters backed by fundamentals. The announcement of BPCL's quarterly results saw the counter touch a high of Rs 262.55 the upper end of the price band. HPCL and Cochin Refinery also jumped by 6.12 and 4 per cent, respectively.