Sensex ends up 272 points at 17,198

The markets continued their upbeat mood from the previous day, led by gains in overseas markets. The Sensex ended at 17,198, stronger by 272 points, and the Nifty closed at 5,122, higher by 89 points.

Auto stocks gained as leading auto majors such as Maruti, Hero Honda, Hyundai Motor and TVS Motors announced good sales numbers for November. Realty and pharma stocks were also in the thick of action.

The abating fears of Dubai's debt woes impacting the global economy added to the feel-good factor around the world. Asian markets closed 1-2.5% higher, European markets were up more than a percent and the US index futures pointed to a firm opening on Wall Street. The US markets rose on Monday, enabling the Dow to post its fifth straight monthly gain.

Leading car maker Maruti Suzuki India recorded 60.1 per cent growth in car sales to 76,359 units in November this year as compared to 47,704 units in the comparable month last year.

The country's biggest two-wheeler maker Hero Honda Motors reported a 32 per cent jump in November sales at 3,81,378 units as against 2,89,426 units in the same month last year.

And the second largest car maker Hyundai Motor India (HMIL) saw a 28.46 per cent growth in total sales in November at 55,265 units. Its domestic sales during November jumped by 92.82 per cent to 28,162 units against 14,605 units during the same month last year.

TVS Motors saw a 23 per cent growth in total two-wheeler sales in November at 1,20,844 units against 98,402 units in the same month last year. Domestic sales were at 1.06 lakh units during the month against 77,491 units last year, up 36.7 per cent, the company said in a statement.

Tata Motors (stronger by 6% at Rs 700), Sun Pharma (higher by 5.6% at Rs 1,538), DLF (put on 5.4% at Rs 370) and M&M (up 4.8% at Rs 1,078) were the leading gainers on the BSE. Relianxce, Sterlite and Reliance Infrastructure gained between 3% and 4% each.

Among the losers, Hindustan unilever shed 1.9% at Rs 279, BHEL lost 0.6% at Rs 2,230 and ONGC gave up 0.2% at Rs 1,196.

The market breath was strong. Out of 2824 stocks traded on the BSE, there were 2027 advancing stocks as against 723 declines.

Unitech topped the value charts, clocking a turnover of Rs 282.61 crore. This was followed by Tata Steel at Rs 154.34 crore, Suzlon at Rs 151.33 crore, DLF at Rs 126.41 crore and HDIL at Rs 125.86 crore.

Suzlon led the volume charts, recording total trades of 33.05 million, followed by Suzlon at 18.97 million, IFCI at 5.73 million, Ispat at 5.41 million and Reliance Natural Resources at 5.30 million.