Sensex ends up 215pts; NTPC, HDFC Bank gain 5%

The index, however, soon rebounded and displayed positive trend for remainder of the day on the back of sustained buying in banking and FMCG stocks. The index surged to a high of 13,879 - up 298 points in late noon trades.

The Sensex finally ended with a gain of 215 points at 13,850. In the process, the index has rallied over 10% (1,274) points in the last three trading days.

The market breadth was marginally negative - out of 2,616 stocks traded, 1,363 declined, and 1,169 advanced today.

The NSE Nifty moved up 67 points to settle at 4,159.

INDEX MOVERS...

Cipla soared over 5% to Rs 226.

HDFC Bank, Ranbaxy and NTPC surged 4.7% each to Rs 1,083, Rs 458 and Rs 181, respectively.

ICICI Bank rallied 4.3% to Rs 644, and Maruti gained 4% at Rs 648.

Hindustan Unilever, Jaiprakash Associates and SBI moved up 3.7% each to Rs 228, Rs 167 and Rs 1,347, respectively.

Reliance Communications advanced 2.6% to Rs 447, and TCS added 2.3% to Rs 813.

Wipro and Reliance were up 2% each at Rs 373 and Rs 2,153, respectively.

ITC, Mahindra & Mahindra, DLF and ONGC were the other prominent gainers - up around 1.5% each - at Rs 179, Rs 528, Rs 463 and Rs 955, respectively.

...AND THE SHAKERS

Satyam has plunged over 4% to Rs 367.

Ambuja Cements slipped over 2% to Rs 81. BHEL shed 1.6% at Rs 1,506, and Larsen & Toubro dropped 1.3% to Rs 2,513.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

Reliance Capital topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 246 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 205 crore), Larsen & Toubro (Rs 196.60 crore), Reliance Communications (Rs 139.70 crore) and IDFC (Rs 128 crore).

IDFC led the volume chart with trades of around 1.34 crore shares followed by Reliance Natural Resourecs (88.85 lakkh), Reliance Petroleum (64.75 lakh), IFCI (61.53 lakh) and First Win (59.90 lakh).