Strong fund based buying helped the Sensex closed above the 17,000 mark for the first time since May 21, 2008. The benchmark index advanced 274 points to close at 17,127 and the Nifty gained 77 points to end at 5,084 after it touched an intraday high of 5,087 and a low of 5,004. Huge buying in banking, auto, metals and cap goods stocks led the markets higher. The market breadth was positive throughout the session and the total turnover was at Rs 82,231 cr.

The BSE bankex outperformed all the other sectoral indices and was up nearly 4%. Stocks like Axis Bank, Oriental Bank, SBI, IOB and ICICI Bank were up 5-6%.

In the IT space, Financial Tech, Wipro, Patni Computer, TCS and Oracle Financ were up 1-5%.

In the capital goods sector, AIA Engineering, Bharat Elec, Elecon Eng, Jyoti Structure and BHEL surged 2-10%.

In the Pharma sector, Dishman Pharma, Wockhardt and Aurobindo Pharm gained 3-13%.

Oil & gas stocks like Aban Offshore, Reliance, BPCL, HPCL and Cairn India were up 0.31-2.58%.

Oil India ended its first trading session at a huge premium of 8.1% to its issue price of Rs 1,050 and ended the day at Rs 1,135.

Among the Sensex stocks, SBI and ICICI Bank led the gainers, advancing 5 % and 4.6 % respectively.

On the losing side, ITC and ONGC ended over 1 % lower.