Mirroring the positive trend in the global markets, the Sensex opened with a positive gap of 66 points at 12,691. Cement scrips dropped in opening trades, but that did not affect the sentiment.

Unabated buying saw the index rally to a high of 12,835. Cement stocks, too, recovered from their day's lows as the mood remained positive through the day. The Sensex finally settled with a gain of 162 points at 12,787.

The BSE Healthcare and Metal indices advanced around 2% each to 3646 and 8367, respectively. The Bankex and IT index was up 1% at 6254 and 4814, respectively.

The market breadth was positive - out of 2,559 stocks traded, 1,581 advanced, 899 declined and 79 were unchanged.

Movers & shakers

HDFC soared over 5% to Rs 1,497. NTPC and BHEL surged around 4.5% each to Rs 161 and Rs 2,353, respectively.

Dr.Reddy's rallied 3.7% to Rs 746. Wipro gained 2.8% at Rs 549.

Cipla, ICICI Bank and Tata Steel advanced around 2% each to Rs 229, Rs 821 and Rs 438, respectively.

Bharti Airtel and Reliance moved up 1.7% each to Rs 747 and Rs 1,363, respectively.

Infosys, Larsen & Toubro and ACC were up around 1.5% each at Rs 1,993, Rs 1,550 and Rs 714, respectively.

Hero Honda and Grasim dropped around 2% each to Rs 644 and Rs 2,064, respectively. Maruti shed 1.5% to Rs 745.

Satyam and Reliance Communications slipped around 1% each to Rs 453 and Rs 398, respectively.

Value & volume toppers

HDFC Bank topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 112.70 crore followed by Renuka Sugar (Rs 99 crore), Indiabulls Real Estate (Rs 98.30 crore), MindTree (Rs 95.80 crore) and ACC (Rs 95.40 crore).

IFCI led the volume chart with trades of around 85.65 lakh shares followed by Rana Sugar (48.15 lakh), Reliance Petroleum (37.45 lakh), Indiabulls Real Estate (37.23 lakh) and NTPC (36 lakh).