BSE Sensex ended 341 points higher on Wednesday on account of buying in some index heavyweights. BSE Sensex closed at 16,949 and NSE Nifty closed 91 points higher at 4929. Tata Steel and Reliance Industries were among major gainers in today’s trading session.

HDFC Bank closed with a gain of 4.9%. ICICI Bank, HDFC and SBI also managed to close with decent gains. Major gainers in today’s trade were Banking, Real Estate and Steel counters. Real estate major Unitech closed with a gain of 13.7 percent. DLF was also among major gainers.

Hero Honda ended the day with a gain of 6.8% at Rs. 716. SAIL closed a little below 200 level with a gain of 5.94 percent.

VSNL has been very volatile for past few trading sessions. The stock was down quite significantly yesterday. Today VSNL bounced back to Rs 468 with a gain of 4.6 percent.

ACC, Hinduja TMT, Dena Bank, Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, ITC, Reliance Capital, Tata Steel, Sterlite Industries and Nicolas Piramal were among major gainers today.

Among losers in today’s trade were Jaiprakash Associates. The stock closed at Rs. 265 with a loss of 12 percent. Power Finance Corporation and Gujarat Industrial Powere lost of 5%. Pharmaceutical counters Cipla, Sun

Pharmaceuticals and Aurobindo Pharmaceuticals were down by more than 3%. Hindustan Zinc, Federal Bank, Wipro and Hexaware Technologies were also down in today’s trading session.

Market breadth remained weak. Selling continued in some stocks in midcap and smallcap segments. The indices managed to close higher due to buying in some select index stocks.

Dow Jones Industrial Average closed yesterday with a gain of 133 points at 12,373. Nasdaq closed marginally down.