The benchmark indices took a sharp 'U' turn today. The markets erased all of their Monday's losses. The Sensex and the Nifty closed the session above 15,000 and 4,500 respectively.

There was a strong build-up in stocks after two days of unwinding. Most beaten down sectors like banking, realty, infrastructure (capital goods) and metal showed steep rally. Technology stocks continued their strong run-up for the second consecutive day.

The 30-share BSE Sensex ended 461.08 points or 3.14% higher at 15,127 and the 50-share NSE Nifty settled at 4550.95, up 2.73% or 121.05 points. All the sectoral indices closed in the green. Only five out of 50 stocks were under pressure.

The broader indices also followed the same trend; the BSE Midcap Index rose 3.15% or 160.87 points, to 5,275.72 and the Smallcap Index gained 101.73 points or 1.67% at 6,185.61. Advance-Decline ratio ended at 7:5 versus 1:11 on Monday.

Rajat K Bose of rajatkbose.com said, ''The target for the Nifty would be 4,585 to about 4,615 and 4,600 to 4,650 continues to be the supply zone. But this time I have a feeling that with this kind of momentum shaping up maybe 4,650-4,670 kind of resistance zone would be crossed and the market can move up even further. The 13-day simple moving average supported this rally and it came very close today to about 4,385 and then bounced back.''

Satyam shot up 10% and Tech Mahindra surged 25.5% post Satyam released its numbers.

Reliance Industries, DLF, L&T, Reliance Communication, SBI, TCS, Wipro, SAIL, Tata Steel, Tata Power and Maruti were the leaders, gained 3-10%.

However, Jitendra Sriram, VP & Fund Manager-Equities, HSBC said, ''The momentum in the market is clearly very strong but valuations are going to be the main headwind.'' He said the market would broadly be in the range of about 5% either way from these levels.

Sectoral indices
The BSE Realty Index outperformed other indices; shot up 6.25% or 225.40 points, to 3,830.32. DLF, Mahindra Life and Omaxe gained 9-10%. HDIL and Unitech were up 5-5.6%.

In the technology space, HCL Tech shot up 12.71%. TCS, Wipro and Infosys jumped 3.6-6%. The BSE IT Index closed 153.45 points or 4.79% higher at 3,357.18.

Huge buying was seen in metal stocks; Sesa Goa was up 14.81%. JSW Steel, Tata Steel, Hindalco, SAIL, Jindal Steel, NALCO and Jindal Saw were up 2.4-9%. Respective Index was down 467.82 points or 4.28%, to 11,401.40.

Capital goods stocks Punj Lloyd and L&T gained 6.4-6.8%. ABB, Suzlon Energy and Siemens went up 3-4.6%. BHEL was up 0.80%.

In the FMCG pack, Tata Tea, GSK Consumer, Marico, ITC, Nestle, HUL and United Spirits gained 2-5.5%.

Telecom stocks also participated in the rally; Reliance Communication was up 7.37% and Idea Cellular rose 5.50%. Tata Teleservices gained 2.5% and Bharti Airtel closed flat.

There was a mixed trend in the oil & gas space though respective index ended 2.6% higher at 10,326.01. Reliance Industries surged 3.79%. Reliance Petroleum and ONGC were up 1.5-2.8%. However, IOC, BPCL and HPCL fell 1.8-4%.
 
In the banking space, SBI and Axis Bank gained 4% each. ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank were up 1-1.5%.

Auto stocks like M&M, Maruti Suzuki, Hero Honda, Apollo Tyres, Ashok Leyland and Tata Motors went up 1-6%.

Power stocks also charged up barring NTPC; Tata Power, GMR Infra, Reliance Power, GVK Power, Reliance Infrastructure and CESC moved up 2-5.6%.

Among the pharma stocks, Sun Pharma Advanced, Wockhardt, Fortis Healthcare, Ranbaxy Labs, Biocon and Dr Reddys Labs were up 3.7-14%.

In the midcap space, IDBI Bank, Patni Computer, Voltas, Rolta and Jaiprakash Hydro went up 11-16.7%. In the smallcap space, Reliance Industrial Infrastructure, Micro Inks, Navneet, CMC, JSW Holdings and Austral Coke gained 10-11.7%.

Volumes crossed the Rs 1 lakh crore mark; total traded turnover stood at Rs 1,00,546.17 crore. This included Rs 23,290.73 crore from the NSE cash segment, Rs 69,273.85 crore from the NSE F&O and the balance Rs 7,981.59 crore from the BSE cash segment.

The market breadth turned positive in the second half of the trade; about 1547 shares advanced while 1350 shares declined. Nearly 245 shares remained unchanged.

Global cues
At the time of closing of Indian equities, Euroepan markets were flat in trade. The FTSE and DAX fell just 6 points each, to 4,398 and 4,998, respectively. The CAC was flat.  

Among the US futures, the Dow Jones futures declined 11 points, to 8,748 and the Nasdaq futures were flat at 1,490.

Asian markets ended mixed. Shanghai, Jakarta and Straits Times gained 0.7-1.8%. However, Hang Seng, Nikkei and Kospi fell 0.8-1.5%. Taiwan Weighted lost 3.22%.