Mumbai: The benchmark ended barely changed from overnight levels at 3333.86 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) on December 19 after overcoming early pressure following a late bout of buying enquiries in generally tight range-bound trade, with the closing list displaying a mixed fare.

Dealers attributed early losses to negative advices from Wall Street where the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down by nearly 77 and 30 points respectively on December 18 night.

However, sharp to moderate rally in select shares from index family like BHEL, HLL, Dr Reddy, Cipla, BSES, Glaxo, Grasim, Bajaj Auto and Satyam Computer helped the SENSEX to post a late recovery, they added.

Barring Wipro and HCL Technologies that ended with marginal losses, other software counters, particularly second-line stocks, attracted good buying support from speculators.

Dr Reddy continued to steal the limelight and shot up by 5.33 per cent, spurred by news that the company has won a patent dispute in the US against Pfizer.

SBI led the sharp downward correction in the banking sector owing to profit taking following the recent surge.

The BSE-30 share sensitive index opened barely steady at 3332.72 and dropped to the day's low of 3313.45. However, buying at mid-session helped the SENSEX to recover to a high of 3345.67 before concluding at 3333.86 as against yesterday's close of 3333.31.

The broad-based BSE-100 index eased by 1.98 points to 1637.37 from previous close of 1639.35.

PTI