The Sensex opened 67 points higher at 14,611. After exhibiting lacklustre movement for most part of the day, the index moved up to a high of 14,746, backed by smart gains in telecom, realty and metal stocks.

The Sensex finally ended with a gain of 135 points at 14,678. In the process, the index on Wednesday broke its five-day losing streak wherein the index had shed 960 points.

The BSE Realty, Power and Metal index gained 1.7% each at 5,208, 2,660 and 12,476, respectively.

The market breadth was fairly positive - out of 2,718 stocks traded, 1,666 advanced, 969 declined and 83 were unchanged on Wednesday.

INDEX MOVERS. . .

Reliance Communications [Get Quote] surged 3.8% to Rs 415, and Bharti Airtel [Get Quote] rallied 3% to Rs 815.

BHEL and Grasim [Get Quote] moved up around 3.5% each to Rs 1,735 and Rs 2,028, respectively.

Ranbaxy [Get Quote] advanced 2.7% to Rs 506, and HDFC Bank [Get Quote] added 2.5% to Rs 1,238.

DLF gained nearly 2% at Rs 510. Reliance Infrastructure, Larsen & Toubro and NTPC were up around 1.5% each at Rs 1,010, Rs 2,715 and Rs 184, respectively.

. . .AND THE SHAKERS

ONGC [Get Quote] dropped 2.5% to Rs 1,036. Mahindra & Mahindra shed 2% at Rs 550.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Vishal Info topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 287 crore followed by Reliance Capital [Get Quote] (Rs 233.70 crore), Reliance Natural Resources [Get Quote] (Rs 187.55 crore), Reliance (Rs 168.60 crore) and SEL Manufacturing (Rs 160 crore).

Reliance Natural Resources led the volume chart with trades of around 1.90 crore shares followed by Chambal Fertilisers (1.14 crore), Ispat Industries [Get Quote] (96.40 lakh), Vishal Info (91.80 lakh) and Nagarjuna Fertilisers (76.55 lakh).