Sensex soars 318pts; HLL surges 4%

The Sensex crossed the 13,500-mark to touch a high of 13,508, and is now up 318 points at 13,499.

ICICI Bank has soared 4.7% to Rs 870. HLL has surged 4.4% to Rs 229.

Cipla, Satyam and NTPC have rallied around 4% each to Rs 248, Rs 466 and Rs 145, respectively.

Gujarat Ambuja, Reliance Energy and Reliance Communications have gained 3.5% each at Rs 139, Rs 533 and Rs 448, respectively.

Out of 2,577 stocks traded so far, 2,042 have moved up, 470 have declined and 65 are unchanged.