The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 23 points at 20,368, which also turned out to be the low for the day. The index hit a high of 20,763 points in late noon deals.

The Sensex finally closed with a gain of 342 points (1.7%) at 20,687. The NSE Nifty ended at 6,274, up 96 points.

The BSE Oil & Gas Index zoomed over 2% ( 315 points) to 13,917.

Market breadth was marginally bullish - out of 2,922 scrips traded, 1,483logged gains and 1,416 declined today.

INDEX GAINERS....

Reliance led the rally today with a gain of nearly 3% (Rs 83) at Rs 2,986.

ICICI Bank [Get Quote] advanced nearly 5% (Rs 57) to Rs 1,285. L&T gained 4.5% (Rs 183) to Rs 4,244.

Hindalco [Get Quote] , ITC and DLF also finished with gains today.

NTPC declined 1.8% to Rs 272. M&M dropped 1.5% to Rs 823.

Infosys [Get Quote] was down over 1% at Rs 1,695. TCS [Get Quote] and Satyam [Get Quote] also declined.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

Reliance Petroleum [Get Quote] was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 431 crore followed by RNRL (Rs 398 crore), Reliance (Rs 272 crore), Centurion Bank of Punjab [Get Quote] (Rs 261 crore) and Reliance Energy [Get Quote] (Rs 248 crore).