Today's Sensex rally of 252 points takes the total gains to around 1000 points from Wednesday's close.

Banking stocks which were on fire on Thursday ended the day mixed. While ICICI Bank staged a smart rally of more then 4 per cent, IndusInd Bank gained 3 per cent in trade. However, Canara Bank and Kotak Bank both dropped in trade.

Nifty stocks that rallied today were Grasim, Jindal Steel, Cipla, Ultratech Cement, Reliance Infra and Cipla.

Oil Marketing companies were on fire after reports that diesel prices could be hiked by Rs 5 per litre. BPCL, HPCL and ONGC all gained ground on the reports.

Manapurram Finance ended the day higher on reports that the promoters of the company had released pledged shares.

Technology stocks lost which lost ground in trade on Thursday ended the day flat even as the rupee gained.

Heavyweight, ITC also saw buying interest and gained in trade today, while the other heavyweight, Reliance Industries ended the day almost flat.

Auto stocks were subdued in trade with Mahindra and Mahindra and Maruti ending the day marginally lower, while Tata Motors gained.

Meanwhile, markets in Asia ended the day mixed ahead of the US non farm payrolls data, which is likely to determine the outcome of the Fed move on quantitative easing. In Europe stocks edged lower with the German DAX, French CAC and the UK's FTSE trading with losses.

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