Sensex ends up 258 points at 18,771

The Sensex opened a tad higher at 18,519 - up six points. Nervousness in opening trades saw the index slip to a low of 18,460 in early trades. Steady buying, thereafter, saw the index rally as the day progressed.

The index touched a high of 18,900 - up 440 points from the day's low - in noon deals. The Sensex pared gains towards the closing bell, and finally ended at 18,771 - up 258 points.

The Nifty gained 73 points to close at 5,569.

The BSE Metal index soared over 4% to 16,425. The Bankex rallied 2.7% to 9924.

The market breadth was positive - out of 2,800 stocks traded, 1,586 advanced, 1,143 declined and 71 were unchanged today.

INDEX MOVERS...

Tata Steel zoomed 8% to Rs 989. ICICI Bank gained 4.5% to Rs 1,146.

Maruti and Bharti Airtel advanced 3.5% each to Rs 1,159 and Rs 1,020, respectively.

Hindustan Unilever, Tata Motors and HDFC Bank rallied nearly 2.5% each to Rs 221, Rs 793 and Rs 1,541,

respectively.

Wipro and SBI moved up 2% each to Rs 496 and Rs 1,944, respectively.

Mahindra & Mahindra, Hindalco, Larsen & Toubro and Grasim gained over 1.5% each at Rs 773, Rs 192, Rs 3,456 and Rs 3,706, respectively.

...AND THE SHAKERS

Cipla slumped 5% to Rs 187. Dr.Reddy's shed 2.5% at Rs 615.

ACC dropped 1.5% to Rs 1,061, and ITC slipped 1% to Rs 183.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Debutant Maytas Infrastructure topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 426.40 crore followed by Reliance Energy (Rs 406 crore), Reliance (Rs 295.40 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs 292.55 crore) and Reliance Petroleum (Rs 269.70 crore).

IFCI led the volume chart with trades of around 2.34 crore shares followed by Reliance Petroleum (1.39 crore), Reliance Natural Resources (1.39 crore), GTL Infrastructure (1.34 crore) and Tata Teleservices (1.04 crore).