The Sensex ended the day higher by 54 points, while the Nifty closed the day higher by 20 points. Among the major gainers from the index stocks were Cipla, Asian Paints, Ambuja Cements and ACC.

Shares of Maruti Suzuki was amongst the worst performer from the Nifty stocks after the workers from the Manesar plant said that they were planning a hunger strike and other peaceful protests to force the management to take back the 548 employees sacked after this year's July's violence.

Other stocks that lost ground from the Nifty were IDFC, Reliance Infrastructure and Hindalco. Banking stocks ended the day mixed with ICICI and HDFC Bank almost flat, while State Bank of India rallied more than 1%.

PSU banking stocks some buying at lower levels with Allahabad bank, Andhra Bank, IDBI bank and IOB amongst the gainers.

FMCG stocks ended the day subdued with ITC and Hindustan Unilever ending the day with modest losses.

Heavyweight Reliance Industries also lost marginal ground in trade today. Meanwhile, shares in Europe were trading higher, while most of Asia closed with losses.

The UK's FTSE, the French CAC and the German DAX were all trading higher ahead of election results in the US.

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