The buying momentum witnessed yesterday, coupled with positive cues from the global markets, saw the Sensex open today with a positive gap of 125 points at 15,217.

The index rallied to a new, all-time intra-day high of 15,331 - up 239 points from the last close. The Sensex finally ended with a significant gain of 181 points at 15,273.

The BSE Metal index gained a whopping 4.5% (526 points) to 12,001.

The market breadth turned negative towards the close as mid-cap and small-cap stocks witnessed profit-booking - out of 2,737 stocks traded, 1,529 declined, 1,154 advanced and 54 were unchanged today.

THE INDEX MOVERS

Hindalco [Get Quote] soared 6% to Rs 174. Tata Motors [Get Quote] rallied 3.8% to Rs 767, and Tata Steel [Get Quote] surged 3.4% to Rs 695.

Reliance gained nearly 3% to Rs 1,769. Satyam [Get Quote] and Mahindra & Mahindra moved up nearly 3% each to Rs 493 and Rs 825, respectively.

BHEL and HDFC Bank [Get Quote] advanced 2.5% each to Rs 1,684 and Rs 1,231, respectively.

ACC, Ambuja Cements, ITC and Grasim [Get Quote] gained around 2% each at Rs 1,096, Rs 129, Rs 156 and Rs 2,871, respectively.

Reliance Energy [Get Quote], Infosys [Get Quote] and Larsen & Toubro were up 1% each at Rs 675, Rs 1,940 and Rs 2,400, respectively.

AND THE SHAKERS

TCS [Get Quote] and Dr.Reddy's slipped 2% each to Rs 1,137 and Rs 668, respectively.Hindustan Unilever and Ranbaxy [Get Quote] shed 1.5% each to Rs 203 and Rs 353, respectively.

Reliance Communications [Get Quote], Cipla and Bajaj Auto [Get Quote] were down 1% each to Rs 555, Rs 211 and Rs 2,175, respectively.

METAL STOCKS SIZZLE

SAIL [Get Quote] zoomed 10.5% to Rs 160. Hindustan Zinc [Get Quote] soared 8% to Rs 798. Jindal Steel, National Aluminium, Sesa Goa [Get Quote] and Sterlite Industries gained 3-6% each.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

GMR Infrastructure [Get Quote] topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 396.60 crore (Rs 3.96 billion) followed by India Infoline [Get Quote] (Rs 187 crore or Rs 1.87 billion), Reliance (Rs 175 crore or Rs 1.75 billion), Infosys (Rs 169.30 crore or Rs 1.69 billion) and DLF (Rs 152.50 crore or Rs 1.52 billion).

Bellary Steel led the volume chart with trades of around 1.70 crore shares followed by Silverline (1.08 crore), Reliance Natural Resources [Get Quote] (97.50 lakh), IFCI (93 lakh) and SAIL (64.20 lakh).