The Sensex opened 73 points higher at 9,040 on the back of positive cues from other Asian markets. The index rallied to higher levels as the day progressed on the back of aggressive buying in banking, energy and metal stocks.

The Sensex surged to a high of 9,455, and finally ended with a gain of over 5% (457 points) at 9,424.

The NSE Nifty ended at 2946, up 139 points.

The BSE Bankex soared 6.7% to 4,326. The Oil & Gas index flared up 6.4% to 6,775, and the Metal index surged 6.3% to 5,593.

The market breadth was fairly positive -- out of 2,642 stocks traded, 1,629 advanced, 899 declined and the rest were unchanged on Monday.

INDEX MOVERS...

Hindalco [Get Quote] and Ranbaxy [Get Quote] zoomed nearly 11% each to Rs 53 and Rs 161, respectively.

Tata Steel [Get Quote] soared 10% to Rs 194. Reliance Infrastructure surged 9% to Rs 527.

HDFC [Get Quote] rallied 8.5% to Rs 1,531. Reliance gained nearly 8% at Rs 1,443.

SBI [Get Quote] and ICICI Bank [Get Quote] advanced over 7% each to Rs 1,023 and Rs 346, respectively.

HDFC Bank, Reliance Communications [Get Quote], ONGC [Get Quote] and Jaiprakash Associates [Get Quote] moved up around 5.5% each to Rs 885, Rs 167, Rs 796 and Rs 84, respectively.

Sun Pharma [Get Quote] rallied over 5% to Rs 1,090. Tata Power [Get Quote] added 4.5% to Rs 697.

Sterlite and Bharti Airtel [Get Quote] were up around 4% each at Rs 329 and Rs 591, respectively.

...AND THE SHAKER

DLF was the sole loser among the index stocks. The scrip ended with a loss of 3% at Rs 166.

OTHER PROMINENT GAINERS...

India Infoline [Get Quote] and Reliance Capital [Get Quote] zoomed over 16% each to Rs 60 and Rs 363, respectively. Bajaj Holdings soared over 14% to Rs 286.

Hindustan Copper [Get Quote], Bhushan Steel [Get Quote], Oriental Bank of Commerce [Get Quote], UltraTech Cement [Get Quote], Indian Bank [Get Quote], Axis Bank, Spice Telecom and Madras Cement rallied 9-12% each.

...AND OTHER LOSERS

Jain Irrigation slumpd 3.7% to Rs 325, and Koutons Retail shed 3.5% at Rs 388. GlaxoSmithKline [Get Quote] Pharma, Gujarat Petronet, Thermax, Jet Airways [Get Quote], Gujarat NRE Coke [Get Quote] and EIH dropped 2-3% each.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

Akruti City topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 581.60 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 249.65 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs 178.10 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 154.15 crore), Educomp Solutions [Get Quote] (Rs 133.10 crore).

Ballarpur Industires led the volume chart wih trades of around 1.79 crore shares followed by Suzlon [Get Quote] (1.06 crore), Reliance Natural Resources [Get Quote] (98.65 lakh), Satyam [Get Quote] (78.90 lakh) and GVK Power (78.40 lakh).