The Sensex opened with a bang at a new all-time high of 15,941 - up 272 points from its previous close - on the back of positive global cues.

The US Fed, on Tuesday, cut its benchmark rate by 50 basis points, for the first time in four years, to 4.75%. A move that resulted in a strong rally across the globe.

The buying momentum was so strong that the Sensex soon crossed a new landmark of 16,000, and went on to extend gains as the day progressed. The index hit an all-time, intra-day high at 16,335 - up 666 points from the previous close.

The Sensex story: From 1k to 16k!

The Sensex finally ended with its biggest-ever single-day gain of 654 points at 16,323.
 
The Nifty gained 186 points to close at 4,732. 

BIG GAINS
Date	Prv Cls	Close	Net Chg	% Chg
15-Jun-06	8929.44	9545.06	615.62	6.89
19-Sep-07	15669.12	16322.75	653.63	4.17
09-Jun-06	9295.81	9810.46	514.65	5.54
08-Mar-07	12579.75	13049.35	469.60	3.73
30-Jun-06	10162.16	10609.25	447.09	4.40
12-Jan-07	13630.71	14056.53	425.82	3.12
27-Aug-07	14424.87	14842.38	417.51	2.89
02-Jun-06	10071.42	10451.33	379.91	3.77
08-Aug-07	14932.77	15307.98	375.21	2.51
18-May-04	4505.16	4877.02	371.86	8.25
03-Jan-00	5005.82	5375.11	369.29	7.38

The index took only 52 trading sessions to move from 15,000 to 16,000.

While the BSE Mid-cap index advanced nearly 2% to 7117, the Small-cap index added 1% to 8871.

The BSE Realty index surged 5.8% to 8465. The Bankex and Oil & Gas indices rallied nearly 5% each to 8691 and 8924, respectively.

The market breadth was positive - out of 2,850 stocks traded, 1,541 advanced, 1,233 declined and 76 were unchanged. 

SENSEX ZOOMS PAST 16,000
Landmark	Strike Date	No of Days	Close	Gain/Loss
16,000	19-Sep-07	52	16,323	654
15,000	06-Jul-07	144	14,964	102
14,000	05-Dec-06	26	13,938	63
13,000	30-Oct-06	135	13,024	117
12,000	20-Apr-06	19	12,040	144
11,000	21-Mar-06	29	10,905	-36
10,000	06-Feb-06	48	9980	237
(Gain/Loss is the net change over previous day)

Big Movers

All the Sensex stocks ended with gains today.

HDFC [Get Quote] and HDFC Bank zoomed nearly 8% each to Rs 2,354 and Rs 1,326, respectively.

Bharti Airtel [Get Quote] soared 6.5% to Rs 886. ONGC [Get Quote] surged 6% to Rs 902, and Maruti [Get Quote] was up 5.8% at Rs 926.

Reliance rallied 5.5% to Rs 2,173. Reliance Communications [Get Quote] and ICICI Bank [Get Quote] gained 5% each at Rs 564 and Rs 970, respectively.

Tata Steel [Get Quote] and Bajaj Auto [Get Quote] moved up 4.7% each to Rs 745 and Rs 2,512, respectively.

While Mahindra & Mahindra and SBI [Get Quote] advanced 4.5% each to Rs 741 and Rs 1,770, respectively, Tata Motors [Get Quote] and ITC added 3.7% each to Rs 722 and Rs 187, respectively.

Hindalco [Get Quote] and Infosys [Get Quote] were up 3% each at Rs 159 and Rs 1,853, respectively. ACC surged 2.7% to Rs 1,153.

Most Active Counters

DLF topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 255.70 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 227 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 148.70 crore), Reliance Capital [Get Quote] (Rs 137.65 crore) and Renuka Sugar (Rs 127.80 crore).

IKF Technologies [Get Quote] led the volume chart with trades of around 1.85 crore followed by Ispat Industries [Get Quote] (1.82 crore), Balrampur Chini [Get Quote] (1.08 crore), IFCI (89.70 lakh) and Himachal Futuristic (87 lakh).