On a day marked by a 20 per cent fall in business, the BSE Sensex ended with a gain of 27 points. The counters of Satyam and Pentafour opened strong and remained firm during the first half of the day. During the second half, both these counters hit the upper circuit.

Following these two counters, stocks like Aptech, Aftech Infosys, Digital Equipment, HCL Infosys, Himachal Futuristic, and Silverline too showed impressive gains. Stocks like Visualsoft, Leading Edge, Lee&Nee Software, and Advent Computers hit the upper circuit.

The Sensex opened at 4453.52 points and during the first half, declined to a low of 4417.94 points. However, during the second half, it improved to a high of 4501.36 points, before closing at 4484.07 points, a net gain of 27.86 points.

Overall, at Rs 1899 crore, turnover was down by around 20 per cent. Advances were 714, while declines were 874.

Market heavyweights remained dull. HLL, Infosys, ITC, SBI, and Reliance moved in a narrow range. Among the main index-based stocks, Ranbaxy stole the limelight. It hit the upper circuit on both the exchanges. In fact, on the BSE, buy orders for around 6 lakh shares were pending at the circuit price. NIIT too showed a jump of over four per cent.

In the non-specified list, impressive gains were reported in counters like Hindustan Inks, Atco Industries, Godrej Soaps, Samtel Colour, Petron, and E Merck.