The 30-share index Sensex rallied further and hit a high of 16,734.32 on the back of continued buying action by FIIs across the board.

Oil & gas, power, metal and capital goods gained the ground.

At 12.17 p. m., the Sensex gained 264.41 points at 16,710.02, whereas the Nifty stood at 5,013.90 after surging 82.75 points.

The major gainers list comprised Reliance Industries, RCom, Tata Motors, JP Associates, Sterlite Industries, Larsen & Toubro, Infosys Tech, Reliance Infra and ICICI Bank.

The losers list included Housing Development Finance Corporation, Sun Pharma, Grasim Ind, Tata Power and Maruti Suzuki.

Among the sectoral indices, the Oil & Gas index surged 2.75% followed by Power index (2.43%), Metal index (2.21%), and Consumer Durables, which remained up by 2.07%.

While commenting on the stock market outlook, Angel Broking said that the trend deciding level for today is 16,373/4,907 levels.

"If NIFTY trades above this level during the first half-an-hour of trade then we may witness a further rally up to 16,559 - 16,673 / 4,971 - 5,011 levels. However, if NIFTY trades below 16,373/ 4,907levels for the first half-an-hour of trade then it may correct up to 16,260 - 16,073 / 4,867 - 4,802 levels," Angel Broking added.