The Sensex opened in the red at 16,772, mirroring negative global cues. Follow-up selling saw the index slip to a low of 16,636 - down 150 points from the previous close.

However, fresh buying in mid-noon trades saw the index jump into the positive zone. Cues from European markets helped the markets rebound. The buying momentum was so strong that the index rallied past the 17,000-mark to a high of 17,042 - up 406 points from the day's low.

The Sensex finally ended at 17,021, up 236 points. Reliance Industries [Get Quote] contributed the maximum, (47 points) followed by HDFC [Get Quote] (24 points) and SBI [Get Quote] (21 points).

The NSE Nifty ended at 5,052, up 64 points.

Among the sectoral indices, barring consumer durables all the index ended in the positive. The Bankex index led the upmove, up 2% at 10,253. It was followed by oil & gas and maetal indices, up 1.5% each.

The consumer durables on the other hand was down 1% at 3,484.

INDEX MOVERS...

ACC soared 4.5% at Rs 766 and Hindalco [Get Quote] advanced 3.5% to Rs 134. Jaiprakash Associates [Get Quote], Tata Steel [Get Quote], HDFC, Mahindra & Mahindra and SBI added over 2.5% each to Rs 233, Rs 551, Rs 2,819, Rs 1,040 and Rs 2,336, respectively.

DLF, HDFC Bank, Reliance, Grasim [Get Quote], TCS [Get Quote], Sun Pharma [Get Quote], Sterlite and ITC increased 1.5-2.5% each.

...AND THE SHAKERS

Bharti Airtel [Get Quote] on the other hand was among the top loser down 1.5% at Rs 289. Reliance Infrastrcuture, Maruti [Get Quote], BHEL and Tata Power [Get Quote] were some of the other marginal losers on the BSE.

The market breadth tunred positive at close - out of 2,787 shares traded, 1,462 advanced, 1,226 declined on the BSE.