After rising 127 points in early trade, the Sensex today pared gains ending the day with a slender rise of 33 points on investors booking profits at higher levels.

Enthused by a higher closing in US markets yesterday, the BSE benchmark index rose to the day's high of 18,705.19 in the morning. HCL Technologies' which announced a 78 per cent rise in profit for second quarter also aided market sentiment.

Brokers said the initial rise was also on the back of Finance Minister P Chidambaram's comments yesterday that Parliament must pass laws necessary for promoting economic reforms and boosting growth.

However, the index failed to sustain the momentum as RIL and TCS shares saw selling. Analysts said RIL counter came under pressure and closed 0.97 per cent down on weak earnings while TCS faced selling ahead of its results on Friday.

After falling to day's low of 18,535.37 on fresh selling by Foreign Institutional Investors, the 30-share Sensex closed with a small gain of 33.07 points, or 0.18 per cent, at 18,610.77. Yesterday, it had fallen by over 135 points.

Stocks including Infosys, Tata Power, Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra and Mahindra, Larsen and Toubro, BHEL, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, ITC, HDFC and Sterlite Industries helped the Sensex end higher, said dealers.

"Markets opened with a gap on back of global cues, however, subdued domestic scenario resulted in some selling pressure from day’s high. Although markets, closed slightly higher compared to yesterday, trading range was small," said Milan Bavishi, Head Research, Inventure Growth & Securities.

The 50-share NSE index Nifty closed with a gain of 12.25 points, or 0.22 per cent, at 5,660.25 led by stocks of consumer durables, capital goods and auto sectors.

Brokers also said a better trend in overseas markets on reports that Moody’s decision of not downgrading Spain's credit rating supported the uptrend.