The Sensex ended the day with gains of 218 points (provisional), while the Nifty gained 79 points in trade. Among the top gainers in trade today were Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Tata Motors, Grasim, NTPC Cairn India, Maruti, Axis Bank and Hindalco.

Among the top losers in trade were Hindustan Unilever, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Jaiprakash Associates and Bharat Heavy. The weakest link in the Nifty pack were the technology stocks that included TCS, Infosys and HCL Tech.

The star in trade however was jet Airways which soared following a deal with the Abu Dhabi based Etihad. The stock ended the day higher by more then 11 per cent.

SpiceJet joined Etihad higher and ended the day with an almost 14 per cent jump on hopes that the company could also follow in the footsteps of Jet.

Private sector banking names continued to be performers with Axis Bank gaining 5 per cent, after the company reported better then expected results.

Realty stocks had a subdued day of trade today with DLF dropping and most of the other stocks in the sector ending the day flat.

Auto stocks also had a good day in trade with Maruti, Mahindra and Mahindra and Bajaj Auto leading the pack.

Meanwhile, markets in Asia closed the day mixed with the Shanghai Composite and the Japanese Nikkei gaining, while the Korean Kospi and the Chinese Shanghai Composite lost ground.

GoodReturns.in