Mumbai Mar 24: The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 99 points at 15,094. The index touched a high of 15,349, and a low of 15,056. Fresh buying towards the close helped the index end on a firm note at 15,289 - up 294 points.

The BSE Mid-cap index shed 2.7% (158 points) at 5,806, and the Small-cap index dropped 3.8% (272 points) to 6,950.

The BSE Bankex rallied 3.3% (249 points) to 7,744.

The NSE Nifty gained 36 points to finish at 4,610.

The market breadth was extremely negative - out of 2,717 stocks traded, 2,149 declined, 535 advanced and 33 were unchanged today.

HDFC zoomed 7.7% (Rs 171) to Rs 2,384. Wipro soared nearly 6% to Rs 399.

HDFC Bank rallied 5.3% to Rs 1,337, and ICICI Bank surged 5% to Rs 805.

Hindustan Unilever advanced 4.3% to Rs 235. ACC gained 3.8% at Rs 805, and Larsen & Toubro has added 3.5% to Rs 2,937.

Bharti Airtel gained 3% at Rs 801. SBI moved up 2.7% to Rs 1,646.

Reliance and ITC were up nearly 2% each at Rs 2,201 and Rs 191, respectively.

Tata Motors, Ambuja Cements and TCS were the other major gainers at Rs 662, Rs 124 and Rs 823, respectively.

Tata Steel slumped 7% to Rs 592.

Reliance Energy plunged 4.6% to Rs 1,151, and DLF shed 4% at Rs 598.

Jaiprakash Associates slipped nearly 2% to Rs 200, and Maruti declined 1.3% to Rs 812.