The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 85 points at 14,590 and exhibited strength throughout the day. A drop in inflation further boosted sentiment in early noon deals.

Agressive buying towards the end saw the index zoom to a high of 14,663 - up 158 points. The Sensex finally ended with a gain of 146 points at 14,651.

The market breadth was positive - out of 2,680 stocks traded, 1,482 advanced, 1,108 declined and 90 were unchanged today.

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Reliance Energy [Get Quote] zoomed nearly 6% to Rs 614. HDFC Bank [Get Quote] soared nearly 5% to Rs 1,144.

ACC surged nearly 4% to Rs 934. SBI [Get Quote] and HDFC rallied 3.7% each to Rs 1,525 and Rs 2,030, respectively.

BHEL gained 3.3% at Rs 1,538. Cipla moved up 2.7% to Rs 208. Ranbaxy [Get Quote] and Larsen & Toubro advanced 2% each to Rs 355 and Rs 2,196, respectively.

Bajaj Auto [Get Quote], Reliance Communications [Get Quote], ICICI Bank [Get Quote], Hero Honda and TCS [Get Quote] were the other significant gainers today.

Hindalco [Get Quote] plunged over 5% to Rs 160.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

SBI topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 154.80 crore followed by GMR Infrastructure [Get Quote] (Rs 122.60 crore), Reliance (Rs 120 crore), Reliance Natural Resources [Get Quote] (Rs 99.60 crore) and Infosys [Get Quote] (Rs 91.50 crore).

Reliance Natural Resources led the volume chart with trades of around 2.60 crore shares followed by IFCI (1.27 crore), Tata Teleservices [Get Quote] (94.25 lakh), Meghmani Organics (84.25 lakh) and Nagarjuna Fertilisers (79 lakh).

The NSE Nifty ended up 33 points at 4,318.