Continuing from last week's upward trend, the Sensex today opened firm with a gain of 32 points at 5,087. Shortly after bouncing from an intra-day low of 5,082, the markets soon crossed the 5,100 mark and rallied sharply on decent buying support in most of the counters, thereby keeping the index on a buoyant note.

While unabated buying across the board lifted the index to an intra-day high of 5,167 towards the closing hours, the Sensex finally, wrapped the day with a gain of 116 points at 5,161. The Nifty surged 43 points to 1,658.

Infosys (up 5% or Rs 252 to Rs 5,176), Wipro (up 5% or Rs 80 to Rs 1,619) and Satyam (up 5% or Rs 17 to Rs 347) rallied sharply on a steep buying support.

ITC moved up 2% (Rs 17) to Rs 871. While Reliance added a per cent (Rs 4) to Rs 492, HLL closed up a rupee at Rs 179.

BHEL gathered momentum in the afternoon trades to finish with a gain of 5% (Rs 22) at Rs 468. While HPCL added 2% (Rs 8) to Rs 375, MTNL closed up a rupee at Rs 121. SBI, however, was down a rupee at Rs 470.

Hero Honda, which sold 204,533 bikes in November, mopped up 6% gains (Rs 23) to Rs 397. Bajaj advanced 2% (Rs 25) to Rs 1,006, while Tata Motors clocked 4% gains (Rs 16) to Rs 425.

Dr. Reddy's advanced 3% (Rs 39) to Rs 1,310. While Cipla surged 4% (Rs 44) to Rs 1,245, Ranbaxy closed up a per cent (Rs 15) at Rs 1,037.

Gujarat Ambuja traded firm on sustained buying support, and ended 4% higher (Rs 11) at Rs 292. While Grasim gained nearly 2% (Rs 14) to Rs 913, ACC ended with a per cent gain (Rs 4) at Rs 231. L&T, traded with steady gains till mid-noon deals, but firmed up towards the closing hours on sustained buying support to finish with a gain of 3% (Rs 10) at Rs 412.