Global cues buoy Sensex over 400 points

After a flat opening in the morning, the Sensex dropped into the negative zone to touch a low of 16,405. Thereafter, the index firmed up and rebounded. The Sensex gained smartly to a high of 16,888 - up 480 points from the day's low.

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The Sensex finally ended with a gain of 409 points or 2.5% at 16,849.

The Nifty ended at 5,004 - closing above 5,000 for the first time since October 21, 2009.

The rally in the market more than made up for Tuesday's loss and was due to gains in Asian markets. Stocks markets in Asia bounced after China reported growth in Industrial production, easing worries of an economic recovery.

The market breadth was fairly positive. Out of 2,817 stocks traded, 61% dvanced while 36% declined on the BSE.

The BSE metal index jumped 4.2% to 15,700. The IT, consumer durables, capital goods, relty and auto indices added 2-3% each.

INDEX MOVERS. . .

Sterlite surged 6% to Rs 852. Other metal stocks, Tata Steel and Hindalco dropped 2.5% each to Rs 519 and Rs 130, respectively.

IT stocks were the other big gainers. Wipro rallied 3.7% at Rs 616. Infosys added 3.2% to Rs 2,290 and TCS was up 2.5% at Rs 641.

Tata Motors added 5% to Rs 623. Jaiprakash Associates, Reliance Infrastructure, Sun Pharma, Mahindra & Mahindra, ICICI Bank, Larsen & Toubro were also up.

Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications erased earlier losses and ended up over 1% each.