Hindustan Lever, which had touched a new high of Rs 2033 on Wednesday, shed Rs 13 to close at Rs 2020 as punters squared up positions ahead of the final day of settlement at BSE. Refinery stocks took the centre-stage with both HPCL and BPCL hitting the upper-end of the circuit-filter. While BPCL closed at Rs 204 (the day's high), HPCL ended the day at Rs 194 (also the day's high).

In terms of turnover on BSE, ITC and Tata Tea were at the top with shares worth Rs 233 crore and 152 crore changing hands. Consequently, the software scrips were pushed down the tableto the third and fourth position;

Pentafour saw its turnover falling from Rs 276 crore to Rs 150 crore, while Satyam's turnover dropped from Rs 149 crore to Rs 91 crore. Both Satyam and Pentafour ended the day closed to yesterday's level at Rs 905 and Rs 845, respectively.

Despite the flat growth in the index, the undertone remained strong and some pivotals like State Bank of India and Reliance were seen gaining strength towards the close of trading. "This is the pre-budget rally and we think it will continue next week. The focus has now shifted to economy stocks like Reliance and SBI," said stock broker Alok Churiwala of Churiwala Securities. Reliance closed slightly lower at Rs 122.10, after witnessing strong buying support in mid-session. State Bank of India moved up to close at Rs 155.90 against the previous close of 154.10. ITC closed higher at 845 against previous close at 839.75.

The second-rung software stocks continued their run with Silverline closing at 199.25 against previous close of Rs194.50. Brittania also continued its upward march and closed high at Rs 1002.

Among the pharma stocks, Glaxo witnessed good buying pushing its stock up by 4.89 per cent to Rs 671 on expectations of impressive results for the third-quarter to be announced on February 25. The price movement was mixed with some second-line stocks continuing to hit the circuit breaker. Digital Equipment, Raymond, Bata, Archies, Global Telesystems, Godphrey Philips, Indian Shaving products and Tata Tea hit the upper price band. EID Parry witnessed heavy selling with the stock hitting the lower price barrier. Digital Equipment, the show stealer of the week, continued its upward surge with the stock hitting the upper price band immediately after opening. It opened at the upper band end at Rs 295.45 and a total of 16,500 shares were traded. MTNL witnessed accumulation at lower levels with leading speculators taking positions. It stock closed at Rs 160.30, higher by 4.84 per cent from its recent lows of Rs 152 with a large turnoverof Rs 36.85 crore in the scrip.