Operators, however, failed to respond positively to fresh purchases by FIIs and continuous assurances from the BJP-led government at the Centre on its stability and commitment to sustain economic reforms.

FIIs were reportedly net buyers in pharma scrips like Glaxo, German Remedies, Novartis and others while they were said to have sold Indian stocks like Telco and SBI.

Local institutions picked up shares of SBI, Reliance Ind, Tata Hydro, MTNL, Corp Bank and SBI in small quantity. The BSE Sensitive index fluctuated in a limited range of 2833.91 and 2804.52 before closing at 2816.59 as against yesterday's close of 2804.03 netting a rise of 12.56 points. The BSE-100 index moved up by 5.71 points to 1255.88 from previous close of 1250.17.

Dealers said operators and investors have lost heavily in the past few weeksand were not willing to take risk at a time when they considered the political situation to be uncertain.

ITC was the most active scrip with a turnover of Rs 132.65 crore followed by Satyam Computer (Rs 127.63 crore), RIL (Rs 98.76 crore), SBI (Rs 76.28 crore) and Zee Telefilms (Rs 45.86 crore).

The market leader, ITC eased by 6.50 to 674.75. Satyam Computers was fractionally down by 2 at 512.75, Telco by 1.40 at 119.80 and Zee Telefilms by 6 at 583.75. However, RIL rose by 1.20 to 112.90, SBI by 3.10 to 152.60 and Tisco by a rupee to 91.50.

On the NSE, share prices recovered on the first day of the current settlement due to good buying by domestic funds. The market opened on a positive note and rose further to close with good gains over the previous close. The S&P CNX Nifty started better at 820.35 and rose further to end at 821.15, showing a rise of 4.50 from the previous close of 818.65.

The total volume of business stood at Rs 1,047.27 crore from 569.50 lakh shares and in 1,81,295 trades.Debentures turnover was Rs 19.58 lakhs.