Turned on by strong global markets, fairly buoyant quarterly results and signs of an economic revival, the bulls entered the ring at the stroke of the opening bell, and, despite taking a breather or two during the session, stayed rooted to it right till the end and lifted the
Indian benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty to their multi month closing highs today.

After a bright start and a subsequent sharp upmove, the market did turn a bit listless and even pared a significant portion of its gains around mid afternoon due to profit taking in realty, pharma, power and some capital goods majors.

However, thanks to some frenzied buying in the closing minutes, the Sensex, which had slipped to 15,500 a few minutes into the final hour, rebounded sharply and very nearly breached the day's high of 15,732.81. The benchmark eventually ended the session at 15,670.31 with a strong gain of 282.35 points or 1.83%.

The Nifty moved in a range of nearly 100 points - it touched a high of 4669.75 and a low of 4571.60 - and ended with a sharp gain of 65 points or 1.42%.

Oil majors Reliance Industries (3%) and ONGC (5.95%) - the former flared up sharply during the final minutes - and banking sector heavyweights State Bank of India (5.3%) and HDFC Bank (2.75%), IT bellwether Infosys Technologies (2.7%) and housing finance major HDFC (2.7%) contributed significantly to the market's buoyant close today.

FMCG stocks, led by heavyweights Hindustan Unilever (3.35%) and ITC (3%), had another bright session. Hindalco gained 6.65% on better than expected quarterly numbers. Tata Motors moved up by 6.65%. Sterlite Industries gained nearly 3%. Sun Pharmaceuticals, Tata Steel, Reliance Infrastructure, BHEL, Larsen & Toubro and Maruti Suzuki ended higher by 1% - 2.5%. ACC, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Power and Mahindra & Mahindra chipped in with modest gains.

Nalco gained 5.8% despite a fall in earnings. Ambuja Cements eased by 4.6%. Idea Cellular, Reliance Capital, Ranbaxy Laboratories, ABB, Cairn India and Siemens also finished on a high note today.

Bharti Airtel ended lower by a little over 3%. Reliance Communications slipped by 2.1%. Hero Honda lost over 2%. DLF ended with a loss of 1.45%. NTPC, Tata Consultancy Services and Grasim Industries also closed weak.

BPCL, Punjab National Bank, HCL Technologies, Unitech, Cipla, Power Grid Corporation and GAIL India were among the prominent losers in the Nifty index.

Bharat Forge, up 10.3% to Rs 210.50, was the biggest gainer in BSE 'A' Group today. Max India gained 9.65%. Mundra Port shot up by 8.65% on strong results. Zee Entertainment, Nestle, Tata Chemicals, United Spirits, Bajaj Holdings, Oracle Financial Services, Voltas, Gujarat NRE Coke, Neyveli Lignite Corporation, Andhra Bank and Aban Offshore were among the other big gainers today.

Though midcaps managed to find support at lower levels and ended fairly stronger today, smallcap stocks were seen drifting lower in afternoon trade due to profit taking.

The market breadth was marginally positive at close. Out of 2801 stocks traded on BSE, 1401 stocks closed with gains. 1299 stocks declined and 101 stocks ended flat.