Taking cues from the global markets following the surprise 50bps rate cut by the US Fed on Friday, the Sensex opened with a huge positive gap of 371 points at 14,512.

The index soon soared to a high of 14,680 - up 539 points. The index, however, pared gains in noon deals, and touched an intra-day low of 14,407. The Sensex finally settled with a gain of 286 points at 14,427.

The BSE Bankex and Metal index rallied over 4% each to 7662 and 10,199, respectively. The Oil & Gas index was up 2.6% at 7621.

The market breadth was fairly positive - out of 2,766 stocks traded, 1,928 advanced, 793 declined and 45 were unchanged today.

INDEX MOVERS....

ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank zoomed over 5% each to Rs 869 and Rs 1,128, respectively.

ONGC, Tata Steel and Bharti Airtel soared around 4.5% each to Rs 818, Rs 569 and Rs 829, respectively.

Ranbaxy and BHEL surged 3.5% each to Rs 365 and Rs 1,610, respectively. Reliance Communications rallied 3% to Rs 508.

Hindustan Unilever gained 2.5% at Rs 197. Reliance, Larsen & Toubro, SBI and ITC advanced around 2% each to Rs 1,792, Rs 2,354, Rs 1,550 and Rs 156, respectively.

Tata Motors, Hindalco, Grasim, ACC and Ambuja Cements were up over 1% each at Rs 650, Rs 142, Rs 2,771, Rs 962 and Rs 128, respectively.

...AND THE SHAKERS

Satyam slipped nearly 2% to Rs 433. Infosys and Wipro declined over 1% each to Rs 1,829 and Rs 470, respectively. Mahindra & Mahindra was down over 1% at Rs 642.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Zylog System topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 246 crore followed by Nagarjuna Fertilisers (Rs 148.70 crore), Reliance (Rs 120.40 crore), Orbit Corporation (Rs 88.25 crore) and ICICI Bank (Rs 66.25 crore).

Nagarjuna Fertilisers led the volume chart with trades of around 4.15 crore shares followed by Ventura Textiles (2.30 crore), Chambal Fertilisers (98.50 lakh), IFCI (86.75 lakh) and IKF Technologies (85 lakh).