The 30-share index, BSE Sensex remained strong during afternoon trade on account of good buying interest seen across realty, metals and IT stocks.

The BSE Sensex gained 194 points to 14,820 and the Nifty stood at 4,523, up 74 points.

The market breadth continues to be extremely positive - 2,030 have advanced while 580 have declined.

The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 2.18% to 5,166.89, while the BSE Small-Cap index gained 2.7% to 6,125.34.

Today (June 01), Sensex belled the day at 14,746.51, up 121.26 points, after gaining 2.30% during the previous working day.

The overall reaction of the stock market also saw an increase after the National Stock Exchange (NSE) after trading hours on Friday, declared a cut in the lot size of a number of derivatives pacts as a part of a periodic evaluation to meet up a previously set value of the contract at Rs 2 lakh.

For most of the stocks, the changes will be applicable from July 2009 derivative contracts.

On this, the broad based Nifty hit its highest level in about 9 months during the early trade on rally in global stocks.

However, the market lost its gains on the back of profit booking. It recovered from lower level later.

The top gainers' list comprised JP Asso, which gained 6.51% to Rs 221.20 and NTPC zoomed 6.34% to Rs 229.25.

Metal shares surged up on account of strong domestic demand and solid costs on the London Metal Exchange (LME). JSW Steel gained 3.04%, Sterlite Industries surged
3.66%, SAIL increased 0.69%, Hindalco zoomed 3.07%, Sesa Goa profited 0.45%, and Hindustan Zincgained up 4.66%.

On Friday, 29 May 2009, LMEX, a gauge of six metals traded on the LME, ascended 2.5% to Rs 2,260.50.

Tata Steel increased 4.75% to Rs 426.10 after its unit, Tata Steel UK, won sanction from banking institutions to relieve conditions on a 3.7 billion pounds loans it took to purchase Anglo-Dutch Corus. The statement was made on Saturday, 30 May 2009.

Among the Reliance Pack, RIL soared 0.73% to Rs 2294.10 on reports that it has struck gas in two blocks (D3 and D9), with estimates putting the natural gas reserves at 20 trillion cubic feet (tcf).

On the other hand, RCom gained 4.84% to Rs 320.60 on the company's plans to lift funds via the qualified institutional placement route.