Indian equities extended their gains for a straight second session on Wednesday. The Sensex marked its closure on a flat note with optimistic bias.

Real estate, banking, automobile and capital goods scrips headed the advances, whereas capital goods, oil & gas and metal stocks remained lower. Indian stocks traded positively after belling the day on a flat note following positive Asian stock markets. It continued to trade positively owing to strong buying activity witnessed across frontline stocks. But, the index trimmed all its early gains and fell into red zone to bounce back into optimistic zone amid volatility. Lastly, it ended in the green after hitting an intra-day high of 17,565.55.

At the close, Sensex closed on a flat note after gaining 11.98 points at 17,472.56, while Nifty gained 14.80 to close at 5,244.90.

In overseas front, European stocks went up and US index futures got up after Apple and Japan's Elpida Memory announced its quarterly earnings, which beat analysts' forecasts, furthering confidence in the worldwide financial system.

According to Shardul Kulkarni of Angel Broking, the level of 5160 on the Nifty is significant and if this is breached, then investors could test 5000.

Mr. Kulkarni advised that trading with a long bias rather than going short and sees good support for the Nifty at 5160-5180.