The bulls, thanks to the 50 basis points cut in US bank rates and the resultant sharp surge in stocks prices across the globe, had a busy outing on the major Indian bourses today. As a result, the Sensex recorded its biggest ever rally in its history, surpassing the 615.62 points gain it had recorded on June 15, 2006.

The mood was so upbeat even before trading commenced this morning that the Sensex opened with a very big positive gap of around 271 points at 15,940.79, well past its previous best of 15,868.85 recorded on July 24, 2007. The barometer crossed the 16,000-mark in a flash and added over 300 points after that as buying continued unabated in blue chip stocks right till the end of the session.

While the Sensex, which recorded a new all-time high of 16,335.30, ended the day at 16,322.75 with a whopping gain of 653.63 points or 4.17%, the Nifty, which hit a high of 4739, settled at 4732.35 with a gain of 4.09% or 186.15 points.

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Buying was so strong and widespread that all the sectoral indices ended with impressive gains today. The Realty index, which moved up by 5.77%, was the biggest gainer followed by the Oil & Gas barometer, which ended with a gain of 5%. The Bankex advanced by 4.84%.

The Auto, Metal, PSU and Teck indices ended stronger by 3.4% - 3.85%. The FMCG and IT indices moved up by 2.05% and 2.41% respectively. The relative underperformers of the day, the Consumer Durables, Capital Goods and Healthcare indices closed higher by 1.25%, 1.8% and 1.17% respectively.

Reflecting the sharp gains posted by midcap stocks, the BSE Midcap surged 1.88% today. The Smallcap closed with a gain of a little over a per cent. The market breadth remained positive despite several smallcap and midcap stocks drifting down to lower levels in late afternoon trade.

Out of 2850 stocks traded on BSE today, 1541 stocks finished on a positive note. 1233 stocks closed in the negative territory and 76 stocks ended at their previous closing levels.

It was a perfect day for the Sensex with all its components ending the session on a positive note. However, Nifty stocks GlaxoSmithKline Pharma, Dabur India, MTNL, Nalco, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and BPCL closed in the negative territory today.

HDFC, the biggest gainer in the Sensex, firmed up by nearly 8%. HDFC Bank notched up a gain of 7.85%. Bharti Airtel gained nearly 6.5%.

ONGC, Maruti Udyog, Reliance Industries, Reliance Communications, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel, Bajaj Auto, Mahindra & Mahindra and State Bank of India gained 4.5% - 6% today.

Tata Motors, ITC, Hindalco, Infosys Technologies, ACC, NTPC, Grasim Industries, Reliance Energy and Tata Consultancy Services moved up by 2% - 4%. BHEL, Hindustan Unilever, Larsen & Toubro and Satyam Computer Services also closed with strong gains.

Wipro, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, Ambuja Cements and Cipla ended with gains ranging from 0.5% to 1%.

SAIL moved up by 7.15%. GAIL India, Sterlite Industries, IPCL, Punjab National Bank, Hero Honda, Zee Entertainment, Reliance Petroleum, Suzlon Energy, ABB, VSNL, Sun Pharmaceuticals, siemens, Tata Power and HCL Technologies finished with strong gains.

Realty and sugar stocks had a nice run as well. Realty major DLF topped the turnover chart today. As many as 10.43 million shares, valued at nearly Rs 728 crore, were traded at the DLF counter on the National Stock Exchange today.

Both NSE and BSE witnessed heavy volumes today. At Rs 16,494.74 crore, the turnover on the National Stock Exchange, was far higher than the turnover of Rs 10,933.30 crore the exchange had recorded yesterday.