The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 98 points at 15,359 on the back of positive global cues. The index rallied nearly 200 points ahead of the announcement of the credit policy review.

A 50bps hike in cash reserve ratio saw the index tumble into negative zone and hit a low of 15,225.

The index, however, bounced back soon as the market acknowledged the fact that all key banking rates were left unchanged in the policy review.

Aggressive buying towards the end saw the index zoom to a high of 15,569 - up 344 points from the day's low. The Sensex finally ended with a smart gain of 290 points at 15,551.

The BSE Capital Goods index soared nearly 5% to 13,322. The Metal and Realty indices surged over 2% each to 11,631 and 7854, respectively.

The market breadth was positive - out of 2,717 stocks traded, 1,706 advanced, 937 declined and 74 were unchanged today.

INDEX MOVERS...

Larsen & Toubro zoomed 6.5% to Rs 2,606. HDFC [Get Quote] soared 5.7% to Rs 2,017, and BHEL surged 5.3% to Rs 1,732.

ACC rallied 3.7% to Rs 1,060. Ranbaxy [Get Quote], HDFC Bank and Reliance Communications [Get Quote] gained around 3.5% each at Rs 390, Rs 1,199 and Rs 559, respectively.

Bajaj Auto [Get Quote] and SBI [Get Quote] advanced around 3% each to Rs 2,360 and Rs 1,624, respectively.

Reliance and Hindalco [Get Quote] moved up around 2.5% each to Rs 1,892 and Rs 170, respectively.

ITC rallied 2% to Rs 171. TCS [Get Quote], Ambuja Cements and Reliance Energy [Get Quote] gained 1.7% each at Rs 1,158, Rs 131 and Rs 793, respectively.

NTPC surged 1.5% to Rs 166. Bharti Airtel [Get Quote] and Tata Steel [Get Quote] were up over 1% each to Rs 903 and Rs 655, respectively.

...AND THE SHAKERS

Mahindra & Mahindra plunged over 3% to Rs 729. Hindustan Unilever and Tata Motors [Get Quote] slipped over 1% each to Rs 206 and Rs 699, respectively.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

SBI topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 277.35 crore (Rs 2.77 billion) followed by Larsen & Toubro (Rs 168.40 crore or Rs 1.698 billion), Reliance (Rs 138.85 crore or Rs 1.38 billion), Reliance Energy (Rs 125.40 crore or Rs 1.25 billion) and HDIL (Rs 121 crore or Rs 1.21 billion).

Reliance Natural Resources [Get Quote] led the volume chart with trades of around 1.31 crore shares followed by IFCI (84 lakh), Bellary Steel (65.10 lakh), IKF Technologies [Get Quote] (61 lakh) and Harig Cranks (59.70 lakh).