The benchmark indices ended smartly with hefty gains after yesterday's steep fall on the back of positive global cues and short covering on the F&O expiry day. The Sensex closed at 11,403 up 402 points or 3.65% and the Nifty surged 3.32% or 112 points to settle at 3,474. Te BSE Midcap Index closed 63 points or 1.83% and the Smallcap Index went up 1.35% or 52.

All BSE sectoral indexes ended in green. Buying was across the board, IT, banking, oil & gas and capital goods let the rally today.

The Sensex ended the April series with 17.5% gain while the Nifty surged 15%.

Movers & Shakers

The BSE IT index surged nearly 5 % on heavy buying in stocks like Infosys, Wipro, TCS, HCL Tech and Tech Mahindra were up 3-5%.

The BSE bankex advanced 4.5 %. In the banking space, ICICI Bank, Canara Bank and Bank of Baroda were the biggest gainers up over 6 % each.

Among the oil & gas stocks, GAIL, ONGC and RIL were the major gainers up more than 3.8 % each.

The BSE auto index gained 2.9 %. Hero Honda and Tata Motors were up 4-5.7%. Bharat Forge, M&M and Maruti Suzuki gained 2-4%.

The BSE metal index advanced 2.8 %. Sterlite Industries, JSW Steel, Hindustan Zinc, Jindal Saw, Tata Steel and SAIL went up 1-6.8%

Among the Sensex ICICI Bank was the top gainer. The stock rose 8.7 % to Rs 477. JP Associates, Sterlite and Tata Power were the other major gainers in the pack. The stocks gained more than 6.6 % each.