Bulls help Sensex regain 17k

After opening with a marginal positive gap, the markets surged on the back of strong cues from the global markets.

The finance minister's comments -- on gross domestic product growth forecast and continuation of the stimulus till Budget -- fimed up markets further.

The Sensex soared over 500 points to regain the 17,000 level after six trading days. The Sensex finally ended with a huge gain of 539 points (3%) at 17,231.

The Nifty surged 159 points to 5,145.

The finance minister reiterated that the economy's growth will be at the earlier projected rate of 7.75%.

Global cues also gave a fillip to the Indian bourses. US markets rallied on Tuesday as a better-than-expected home sales data was reported. Asian markets also ended in the green today.

All sectoral indices were in the green as the metal index shone. The index jumped 4% to 17,075. Oil & gas, power, IT and capital goods gained over 3% each.

Reliance was the star-performer in trades today and surged 4.6% to Rs 1,066. Other heavyweight - Infosys, ICICI Bank and Larsen & Toubro rallied 3-4% each.

Metal stocks shone. Hindalco soared 8% to Rs 153. Sterlite surged 5% to Rs 847. Tata Steel added 4.5% to Rs 603.

PSU stock NTPC advanced 7% to Rs 230. Relaty stocks - Jaiprakash Associates, Reliance Infrastructure and DLF jumped.

Other gainers included BHEL, Mahindra & Mahindra, HDFC, Tata Motors, TCS and ITC. Reliance Communications, SBI, Wipro, Grasim, Maruti Suzuki and ONGC moved up 1-2% each.

The BSE market breadth was positive. Out of 2,922 stocks traded 1,902 advanced while 927 declined.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS. . .

Tata Steel topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 215.60 crore, followed by Reliance (Rs 146.89 crore), Zandu Pharma (Rs 143.05 crore), Suzlon (Rs 141.45 crore) and HDIL (Rs 110.04 crore).

The volume chart was led by Suzlon with trades of over 16.28 million shares, followed by NHPC (12.73 million), Radhe Developers (10.89 million), Unitech (8.54 million) and Kaashyap Technologies (6.85 million).