The Sensex opened 115 points higher at 8,275 after its two-days holidays. The index displayed steady movement through the day and touched a high of 8,440.

The Sensex pared gains towards the close and finally ended with a gain of 183 points at 8,344.

The NSE Nifty ended at 2,617, up 44 points.

The BSE Auto index surged 3.7% to 2,695. The Bankex and Oil & Gas index gained around 3.3% each at 3,754 and 5,815, respectively. The Metal index was up nearly 3% at 4,566.

The market breadth turned negative towards the close - out of 2,520 stocks traded, 1,261 declined, 1,163 advanced and the rest were unchanged on Thursday.

INDEX MOVERS...

ICICI Bank [Get Quote] zoomed over 8% to Rs 284. Sterlite soared over 7% to Rs 262.

Tata Motors [Get Quote] surged nearly 7% to Rs 146, and Maruti [Get Quote] rallied nearly 6% to Rs 689.

Sun Pharma [Get Quote] and Reliance Communications [Get Quote] moved up over 4.5% each to Rs 1,025 and Rs 138, respectively.

Reliance, ACC, Hindustan Unilever and Hindalco [Get Quote] gained around 4% each at Rs 1,202, Rs 541, Rs 225 and Rs 39, respectively.

Mahindra & Mahindra advanced over 3.5% to Rs 329. BHEL and Wipro [Get Quote] were up over 3% each at Rs 1,342 and Rs 212, respectively.

TCS [Get Quote], Infosys [Get Quote], Larsen & Toubro, ONGC [Get Quote] and Tata Steel [Get Quote] were the other major gainers today.

...AND THE SHAKERS

Bharti Airtel [Get Quote] slumped nearly 6.5% to Rs 550.

Tata Power [Get Quote] shed 2.5% at Rs 607. NTPC and DLF dropped around 1.5% each to Rs 174 and Rs 137, respectively.

OTHER PROMINENT GAINERS...

Axis Bank soared nearly 8.5% to Rs 304. Akruti City, Pantaloon [Get Quote] Retail, Koutons Retail and United Phosphorous surged 7-8% each. Indian Overseas Bank [Get Quote], Bharat Forge [Get Quote], Sesa Goa [Get Quote] and Indiabulls [Get Quote] were up around 5-6% each.

...AND THE LOSERS

Sun TV [Get Quote] slumped 7% to Rs 137. Piramal Healthcare, IRB Infrastructure, IDFC [Get Quote] and Federal Bank [Get Quote] plunged 5-6% each. Syndicate Bank [Get Quote], Jubilant Organsys, Chennai Petro, Jet Airways [Get Quote], Aditya Birla Nuvo [Get Quote] and Suzlon Energy [Get Quote] were down 4-5% each. 

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 223.53 crore followed by ICICI Bank (Rs 222.16 crore), Satyam [Get Quote] (Rs 184.30 crore), Bharti Airtel (Rs 137.20 crore) and Reliance Capital [Get Quote] (Rs 123.11 crore).

Satyam led the volume chart with trades of around 3.76 crore shares followed by IDFC (1.61 crore), Rolta (98.88 lakh), ICICI Bank (79.05 lakh) and Cals Refineries (75.23 lakh).