The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 55 points at 12,485. Lacklustre movement in early trades saw the index slip a wee bit to 12,427, before bouncing back to higher levels.

Fresh buying in select stocks like BHEL, ONGC and Reliance Communications saw the index surge to a high of 12,655. The index finally settled with a gain of 215 points at 12,645. The NSE Nifty closed at 3,679, up 70 points.

Index Movers & Shakers

BHEL soared 6.3% to Rs 2,079. Reliance Communications surged 5.4% to Rs 397. ONGC rallied 4% to Rs 793, and Gujarat Ambuja gained 3.5% at Rs 107.

Tata Motors and NTPC moved up nearly 3% each to Rs 771 and Rs 144, respectively. HDFC Bank and ACC advanced around 2.5% each to Rs 927 and Rs 739, respectively.

Wipro, Bharti Airtel, HDFC, TCS, Infosys and HLL were up around 2% each. ITC and Hero Honda slipped around 2% each to Rs 142 and Rs 640, respectively.

Value & Volume Toppers

MindTree topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 248.30 crore (Rs 2.48 billion) followed by AMD Metplast (Rs 128.60 crore or Rs 1.28 billion), Reliance Communications (Rs 100.55 crore or Rs 1 billion), AML (Rs 85.15 crore or Rs 851.5 million) and Raj Tele (Rs 75.70 crore or Rs 757 million).

IFCI led the volume chart with trades of around two crore shares followed by AMD Metplast (1.64 crore or Rs 16.4 million), Jagjanani (Rs 1.45 crore or Rs 14.5 million), Lawreshwar (1.02 crore or Rs 10.2 million) and AML (93.65 lakhs or Rs 9.3 million).