After the loss of 565 points on Monday, the Sensex today opened on a positive note, gaining 48 points. Propelled by gains in most of the counters, the index edged higher in mid-morning deals but displayed a range-bound trend thereafter till mid-noon trades.

The market, however, escalated further by late noon trades following media reports that Sonia Gandhi has refused to become the next prime minister of India.

With the possibility of Manmohan Singh becoming the next prime minister gaining strength, the market sentiments improved considerably.

The Sensex, after witnessing an intra-day movement of 324 points, finally ended with a gain of 372 points at 4,877. The Nifty finished above the 1,500-mark, adding 115 points to end at 1,504.

While 29 Sensex stocks advanced, one declined today.

Reliance garnered 7.45% gains (Rs 30) to Rs 434. ITC zoomed 10.82% (Rs 90) to Rs 918. HLL notched up 8.40% gains (Rs 10) to close at Rs 130.

SBI flared up 9.81% (Rs 44) to Rs 491. MTNL scaled up 13.51% (Rs 14) to Rs 121. While BHEL moved up 9.89% (Rs 39) to Rs 438, HPCL ended with a modest gain of Rs 4 at Rs 319. ONGC was marginally up by 1.51% (Rs 9) at Rs 639.

Infosys mopped up 7.95% gains (Rs 360) to Rs 4,887. Wipro (up Rs 282 or 22.33% to Rs 1,544) and Satyam (up Rs 15 or 5% to Rs 308) also ended with sharp gains.

Dr. Reddy's spurted 12.70% (Rs 100) to Rs 888. While Cipla jumped 10.35% (Rs 22) to Rs 239, Ranbaxy was up 3.97% (Rs 38) at Rs 1,008.

Grasim surged 5% (Rs 52) to Rs 1,070. While Gujarat Ambuja added 3.41% (Rs 9) to Rs 285, ACC was up 3% (Rs 7) at Rs 253. L&T, however, ended 3.97% lower (Rs 18) at Rs 445.

Hero Honda advanced 8.84% (Rs 36) to Rs 443. While Tata Motors flared up 6.62% (Rs 25) to Rs 402, Bajaj rose 3.88% (Rs 33) to Rs 877.

HDFC Bank vaulted 24.47% (Rs 70) to Rs 356. HDFC shot up 17.44% (Rs 88) to Rs 592. While Tata Power gained 10.15% (Rs 27) to Rs 288, Bharti added 8.50% (Rs 11) to Rs 147. Tisco perked up 11.83% (Rs 31) to Rs 294. Zee was up 3% (Rs 4) at Rs 124.

Hindalco at Rs 926 (up Rs 60 or 6.89%), Reliance Energy at Rs 575 (up Rs 97 or 20.40%) and ICICI Bank at Rs 261 (up Rs 22 or 9.30%), too, ended with significant gains.