The Sensex opened marginally (26 points) higher at 14,293, and then did not bother to look back. Unabated buying saw the index rally to a new all-time intra-day high of 14,463.

The Sensex finally settled with a gain of 137 points at 14,404. In the process, the index gained 121 points for the week.

The market breadth was positive - out of 2,721 stocks traded, 1,439 advanced, 1,225 declined and 57 were unchanged.

Index movers and shakers

Bharti Airtel soared 5.4% (Rs 39) to Rs 771. Larsen & Toubro surged 4.8% to Rs 1,677, and HDFC gained 4.3% at Rs 1,744.

Reliance Communications, Satyam and Wipro advanced 3.5% each to Rs 491, Rs 491 and Rs 643, respectively.

Gujarat Ambuja rallied 2.5% to Rs 143. Reliance Energy moved up nearly 2% to Rs 534.

Cipla, Grasim and Tata Steel were up over 1% each to Rs 250, Rs 2,812 and Rs 463, respectively.

NTPC shed 2.3% to Rs 142. SBI dropped 1.8% to Rs 1,181, and Hero Honda slipped over 1% to Rs 716.

Value & volume toppers

BF Utilities topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 232.32 crore followed by Gitanjali Gems (Rs 168.42 crore), Auto Industries (Rs 166.90 crore), Tata Steel (Rs 166.26 crore) and Reliance Communications (Rs 154.67 crore).

Himachal Futuristic led the volume chart with trades of around 1.52 crore shares followed by IKF Technologies (1.14 crore), Reliance Natural Resources (1.04 crore), Harig Cranks (69.15 lakh) and Gitanjali Gems (69 lakh).