The bulls, with strong global markets aiding them to perfection, came charging back into the ring this morning after two days of big losses. So aggressive were they that the market opened with a big positive gap and despite suffering a setback of sorts around mid morning, rebounded sharply and traded firm for around a couple of hours with front line stocks cutting across sectors posting impressive gains.

And then, a severe bout of selling pressure knocked the wind out of several blue chips and pushed the market down into the red around mid afternoon. However, after moving in a choppy manner for about an hour, the market staged yet another rally and this time around, managed to stay firm and eventually signed off a buoyant note in the end.

The Sensex, which opened with a positive gap and rose to around 14,450 by noon but plunged to a low of 14,179.77 thereafter, flared up to 14,559.08 on frenzied buying in the final hour. It finally ended the session at 14,521.89 with a handsome gain of 256.36 points or 1.8%. The Nifty closed at 4313.60, up 62.20 points or 1.46% over its previous closing mark. The Nifty touched a high of 4326.20 and a low of 4206.70 today.

The much battered stocks in recent sessions, capital goods, realty and metals, were among the star gainers today. Capital goods stocks attracted attention on hopes the government may allow higher depreciation for investment in new plant and machinery for companies to give a fillip to industrial growth. The BSE CG index, mirroring sharp gains posted by key capital goods stocks, ended stronger by 4.58% today.

The Realty index moved up by 3.13% and the Metal barometer surged 2.81%. BSE IT advanced 2.32%, the Bankex climbed up 1.82%. Despite a few big players in the sector ending lower, the BSE Power index notched up 1.81%. BSE HC (1.79%), Teck (1.69%), FMCG (1.66%), CD (1.47%) and Auto (1.03%) also closed sharply higher. The Oil & Gas index firmed up by 0.85% while the PSU barometer edged up by 0.2%.

Tata Steel moved up by 5.85%. Larsen & Toubro gained 5.75%. Tata Motors and Reliance Infrastructure gained a little over 5%. Jaiprakash Associates surged 4.68%. Ranbaxy Laboratories, ITC, Grasim Industries, Sterlite Industries, Infosys Technologies, BHEL, DLF, HDFC Bank and Reliance Communications gained 2% - 4%.

ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Maruti Suzuki, HDFC, Wipro and Reliance Industries also closed with notable gains. Tata Consultancy Services, Hindalco and Hindustan Unilever ended with modest gains while Bharti Airtel closed flat.

NTPC ended lower by around 2.2%. ACC and Tata Power lost more than a per cent. Sun Pharmaceuticals, Mahindra & Mahindra and ONGC closed marginally down.

Suzlon Energy ended with a hefty gain of 11%. Unitech, ABB, Reliance Capital, Punjab National Bank, Jindal Steel, Siemens, Cipla, Axis Bank, GAIL India, Cairn India, Idea Cellular, HCL Technologies, Hero Honda and Ambuja Cements also closed with impressive gains today. Nalco, Reliance Power, Power Grid Corporation and BPCL ended on a weak note.

The BSE Midcap index surged 1.68% while the Smallcap index finished with a modest gain of 0.82%. The market breadth was marginally positive at close. Out of 2704 stocks traded on BSE, 1345 stocks closed higher. 1293 stocks posted losses and 66 stocks ended flat.