The Sensex opened marginally higher at 14,419, up 21 points. Some weakness in early trades saw the index slip into red to a low of 14,372. However, steady buying in select heavyweights helped the index rebound into positive zone.

The buying gained momentum in the latter half of the trading day and the index rallied to a high of 14,530 - up 158 points from the day's low. The Sensex finally ended with a gain of 110 points at 14,508.

The NSE Nifty rallied to a new all-time intra-day high of 4299, before settling at a record 4293 - up 36 points.

The market breadth was positive - out of 2,672 stocks traded, 1,357 advanced, 1,213 declined and 102 were unchanged today.

BHEL, Cipla lead...

BHEL and Cipla soared nearly 5% each to Rs 2,856 and Rs 219, respectively. Larsen & Toubro surged 4% to Rs 1,857.

Ranbaxy and Reliance Communications rallied over 2% each to Rs 390 and Rs 521, respectively.

Reliance and HDFC Bank advanced 1.8% each to Rs 1,755 and Rs 1,145, respectively.

SBI, Grasim, HLL, Tata Motors and Reliance Energy were up around 1% each at Rs 1,322, Rs 2,509, Rs 203, Rs 741 and Rs 555, respectively.

HDFC shed 1.7% to Rs 1,813. Gujarat Ambuja and NTPC were down 1% each at Rs 115 and Rs 161, respectively.

Most active counters

Orbit Corp topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 208.40 crore followed by Unitech (Rs 150 crore), Reliance (Rs 149 crore), Advanta (Rs 129 crore) and India Infoline (Rs 122 crore).

Reliance Natural led the volume chart with trades of around 1.84 crore shares followed by IFCI (96.70 lakh), Nocil (87.60 lakh), Orbit Corp (84.80 lakh) and Sun Iron Steel (74.30 lakh).