The markets continued from where they had left on Friday and closed with handsome gains with reasonable volume thanks to the rally seen in other global peers. The Asian markets have been on bit of a tear since the last few sessions and have touched new highs.

It was a fantastic close for market near the highest point of the day. The markets perked up more during the final hour of trade on account of some short covering.

Sensex closed up 311.50 points or 2.33% at 13695.58, and the Nifty up 96.00 points or 2.45% at 4013.35.

About 1761 shares have advanced, 771 shares declined, and 72 shares are unchanged.

Strength was seen in various sectors like capital goods, oil & gas, FMCG, cement & construction, banking and financial serveices etc. The midcap and smallcap stocks also participated in the rally giving market an extremely positive breadth.

The recent listings ICRA, Broadcast Initiatives, Page Industried and Orbit Corporation raced ahead. ICRA and Orbit were also among the most active shares on BSE.

Nifty saw two back to back days of around 100 points gain and today it breached the 4,000 mark first time since Feb 22. It has recovered 13% from recent low of 3,554.5 on March 5.

Suzlon Energy, Zee Entertainment, Wipro, ACC, Grasim, Tata Steel, Gujarat Ambuja, HLL are the top gainers on indices. Reliance Industries surged to life time high and its markets cap has crossed Rs 2 lakh crore.

The BSE Midcap Index ended at 5,665.95 up 89 points or 1.6%.

The BSE Smallcap Index ended at 6,884.13 up 128 points or 1.9%.

The BSE Bankex was up 1.3% at 6,722.81. Bank of India, Bank of Baroda, PNB, SBI, Canara Bank moved upwards.

The BSE Capital Goods Index was up 2.9% at 9,745.82. Praj Industries, Crompton Greave, HEG, Ingersoll Rand, Bharat Elec closed higher.

The BSE Health Care Index was up 1.06% at 3,725.57. Lupin, Wyeth, Sterling Bio, Ipca Labs, Nicholas Pirama closed higher.

The BSE Auto Index closed at 4,888.81 up 1.2%. Tube Investment, Exide Industrie, Tata Motors, Mah and Mah, Bajaj Auto surged.

The BSE Metal Index closed at 9,560.58 up 2.8%. JSW Steel, Jindal Stainless, Sterlite Ind, Tata Steel, Hindalco advanced higher.

The BSE IT Index gained 1.6% at 5,150.28. Hexaware Tech, I-Flex Solution, Wipro, HCL Info advanced.

BSE Oil and Gas Index closed at 6,769.44 up 3.1%. MRPL, Petronet LNG, Reliance, ONGC, IOC ended higher.

The BSE FMCG Index gained 2.6% at 1,820.48. Tata Tea, ITC, Nirma, HLL, Shaw Wallace closed higher.

The NSE cash turnover was at Rs 8940.2 crore and the NSE F&O turnover was at Rs 29442.91 crore. The BSE cash turnover was Rs 4097.05 crore. Total market wide turnover was at Rs 42480.16 crore.

Markets Today:

• Markets rally led by oil & gas index; RIL m-cap crosses Rs 2 lakh cr again
• Nifty closes above 4,000 for 1st time since Feb 22; recovers 13% from low of 3,554.5 on March 5
• Nifty up 2.45% at 4013.35; Sensex up 2.33% at 13695.68
• All BSE Sectoral indices end in the green
• BSE Oil & Gas Index up 3.11%; RIL hits life time high, up 3.24%, ONGC up 3.19%, IPCL up 3.25%
• FMCG stocks gain; HLL up 3.34%, ITC up 3.29%
• Cement stocks; ACC up 4.94%, Grasim up 4%, Guj Ambuja up 3.41%
• BSE Metals Index up 2.76%; Tata Steel up 4.56%, Sterlite up 4%, Hindalco up 3.14%
• Index Gainers; Suzlon up 7.7%; Zee Ent up 6.60%, R Com up 4%
  CNX Midcap Index up 1.50%; led by recent listings
• ICRA, Broadcast Initiatives up 20% each, TTML up 12%, Punk Lloyd up 8.3%
• BSE Small-cap Index up 1.89%; led by recent listings
• Blue Bird up 18.75%, Oriental Trimex up 13%, Abhsihek Mills up 12.5%
• NSE Advance Decline ratio at 3:1
• Total market turnover at Rs 42480.16 cr Vs Rs 47655.98 cr on Friday