The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 Indexes ended marginally higher after halting their two-day losing streak. For most part of the day, benchmarks swung between negative and positive territory and the Sensex fluctuated at least 17 times between gains and losses. Buying interest in HDFC Bank, HDFC, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, State Bank of India was offset by selling pressure in Reliance Industries, Power Grid, Axis Bank and Yes Bank. In intraday deal, the Sensex traded in a range of 424 points while the Nifty touched intraday high of 11,897.50 and low of 11,769.50.

The Sensex ended 0.22 per cent or 86 points higher at 39,616 and the NSE Nifty 50 Index advanced 0.23 per cent or 27 points to settle at 11,871.

Eleven of 19 sector gauges compiled by BSE ended lower led by the S&P BSE Utilities Index's 1.35 per cent gain. Power, Energy, Healthcare, Metal and Realty sector gauges also declined between 0.5 and 0.9 per cent each.

On the other hand, S&P BSE Telecom Index was top gainer, up 0.85 per cent. Bankex and Consumer Durable gauges also advanced 0.5 per cent and 0.45 per cent each respectively.

The mid- and small-cap shares witnessed mild selling pressure as both the indexes on BSE dropped over 0.1 per cent each.

IndusInd Bank was top gainer in the Nifty 50 basket of shares, the stock rose 2.26 per cent to end at Rs 1,557. Bharti Infratel, Bajaj Finance, State Bank of India, Bharat Petroleum, Tech Mahindra, ICICI Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra and Wipro were also among the gainers.

On the flipside, Dr. Reddy's Labs, Yes Bank, Cipla, Power Grid, JSW Steel, Coal India, NTPC, Sun Pharma, Reliance Industries and ONGC were among the losers.

The overall market breadth was negative as 1,413 shares closed lower while 1,060 ended higher on the BSE.