The 30-share BSE Sensitive Index (Sensex) opened with positive gap of 107 points at 17,085 following a positive close in the US markets. Agressive buying in late noon deals helped the index touch the day's high at  17,366 — up 388 points from yesterday's close. The index finally ended with a gain of 375 points at 17,353.

The NSE Nifty moved up 103 points to close at 5,115. Nifty May 2008 futures were at 5113, a discount of 2.25 points as compared to spot closing.

Turnover on the BSE surged amounted to Rs64.85 billion from Rs62.19 billion Wednesday. Turnover in NSEís futures & options segment amounted to Rs381.96 billion from Rs329.2 billion on Wednesday. The market breadth was fairly positive — out of 2,755 stocks traded, 1,772 advanced, 909 declined and the rest were unchanged. Among the 30-member Sensex pack, 24 advanced while the rest slipped. Hindalco soared 6 per cent to Rs204. Reliance Communications surged 5.3 per cent to Rs589, and Larsen & Toubro gained 4.7 per cent to Rs2,963.Reliance Inds, ICICI Bank and Infosys advanced 3.6 per cent to Rs2,623, Rs929 and Rs1,891, respectively. DLF, Maruti and BHEL moved up around 3 per cent each to Rs644, Rs823 and Rs1,800, respectively. Ambuja Cements was up 2.5 per cent at Rs112. HDFC, Jaiprakash Associates and ACC gained 2.2 per cent each to Rs2,793, Rs266 and Rs682, respectively. Cipla and Reliance Infra were up around 2 per cent each at Rs214 and Rs1,451 respectively. TCS, Grasim, ONGC, SBI and Wipro were the other major gainers yesterday.

The decliners were fewer for the day. Satyam tumbled 3.4 per cent to Rs484. Hindustan Unilever plunged 1.9 per cent at Rs239, and Tata Motors slipped 1.5 per cent to Rs663. Reliance Communications (RCom) was the star performer of the day, jumping up 5.40 per cent to Rs589.50 on reports its infrastructure arm Reliance Infratel has recieved Securities & exchange board of India (Sebi)'s approval for public issue.

Aishwarya Telecom led the value chart with a turnover of Rs8.86 billion followed by Reliance Communications (Rs2.59b), Reliance Inds (Rs1.79b), Reliance Petroleum (Rs1.63b) and Satyam (Rs1.58b).

Aishwarya Telecom, also, topped the volume chart with trades of around 70.5 million shares followed by IFCI (21.9m), Ispat (10.9m), Cybermat (10.8m) and Reliance Natural Resources (10.3m).

The BSE Mid-Cap index rose 1.29 per cent to 7,079.89 while the BSE Small-Cap index gained 1.33 per cent to 8,546.41. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.

All sectoral indices on BSE logged gains barring the BSE FMCG index which shed 0.21 per cent to 2,494.54.

The BSE Oil & Gas index (up 2.65 per cent to 11,205.76), BSE Bankex (up 2.44 per cent at 8,806.01), BSE Capital Goods index (up 3.46 per cent at 13,600.80) and BSE Realty index (up 3.41 per cent at 8,042.52) outperformed the Sensex.

The BSE TecK index (up 1.89 per cent to 3,552.76), BSE IT index (up 1.33 per cent to 4,486.36), The BSE PSU index (up 1.60 per cent to 7,762.62), BSE Auto (up 0.25 per cent at 4,730.24), BSE Health Care index (up 0.79 per cent at 4,285.99), BSE Metal index (up 1.86 per cent to 16,740.37), BSE Power (up 2.13 per cent to 3,303.13) and BSE Consumer Durables index (up 0.91 per cent to 4,548.75) underperformed the Sensex.

Shares from real estate pack advanced, on fresh buying. DLF (up 3.23 per cent to Rs643.10), Unitech (up 4.63 per cent to Rs287), Omaxe (up 6.44 per cent to Rs228) and Parsvnath Developers (up 4.46 per cent to Rs219.90) surged on fresh buying.

IT pivotals advanced on fresh buying as the rupee held near 13-month lows against the dollar. Indiaís second largest software services exporter Infosys Technologies gained 3.46 per cent to Rs1889.40 after striking an intra-day high of Rs1908. Infosys has 7.63 per cent weightage in Sensex and 3.46 per cent weightage in Nifty. Other IT pivotals, Wipro (up 0.91 per cent to Rs508.20), and TCS (up 2.02 per cent to Rs989.55), also logged gains.

The partially convertible rupee was at 42.35/36 per dollar, stronger than yesterday's close of 42.45/46.