Sensex recovers 45 points in volatile trade; Bharti in limelight

In volatile trade, the BSE benchmark Sensex on Wednesday recovered by 45 points to end above 20,000-mark on buying in Bharti Airtel, ITC, Tata Power and Hero MotoCorp.

Besides stock-specific developments, market participants were also enthused by Finance Minister P Chidambaram's comments to widen tax base and ramp up revenues, brokers said.

The Sensex, which had lost 120 points in the previous sesson, bounced back by 45.04 points, or 0.23% to close at 20,026.61 points.

After a better start, the 30-share index touched day's high of 20,058.07 and a low of 19,920.91 as investors continued to adjust their portfolios after recent gains.

Bharti Airtel closed 4.4% up as it has hiked rates of special tariff vouchers and reduced free minutes usage, barely a month after hiking price of 2G data plans.

Stocks of banking, IT and capital goods sectors attracted buying on steady inflow of better corporate earnings by key index-related companies.

However, HUL shares tanked by 4.4% after reporting quarterly numbers and announcing hike in royalty payment to parent Unilever yesterday.

The broad-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty rose by 5.80 points, or 0.10% to 6,054.30.

In the banking sector index, State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, HDFC Ltd and ICICI Bank gained. In the capital goods sector, L&T, BHEL and Siemens and ABB registered gains.

Reliance Industries and Infosys also closed higher.

Outside the index, shares of HDIL tumbled by 14.33%.