Despite a negative start on Wednesday, owing to weak cues from international markets, the Sensex managed to close with a gain of 207 points.

In a day marked by ups and downs, the Sensex, which opened at 10,284 points, soon fell to a low of 10,172; before being recovered by selective buying in FMCG and realty stocks. With recovery being swifter than expected and buying spreading to other sectors, the Sensex rallying to a high of 10,778, before finally closing at 10,742 points.

The Nifty, which was up 2.77 per cent or 90.15 points over Tuesday's close, ended at a conditional 3346.75 points. The NSE benchmark index saw a high of 3357.05 and low of 3149.25 points during the course of the day.

There were 2,015 advances on BSE, and 477 declines, while 59 stocks remained unaffected. The prominent gainers included Jaiprakash Associates zooming almost 9 percent; NTPC almost 7 percent; Tata Motors and Hindustan Unilever 6 percent each; ITC 5 percent; and Larsen & Toubro and Wipro soared 4.7 percent each.

The key losers on Wednesday were Mahindra & Mahindra slipping 3.5 percent; Hindalco 3 percent; Reliance Communications 2 percent; HDFC Bank 1.6 percent; and BHEL dropping 1 percent.