Benchmark indices ended the day sharply higher as markets cheered the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) sharper then expected rate cut.

The Sensex ended the day higher by 161 points, while the Nifty closed lower by 47 points.

The RBI cut the repo rate by 50 basis points as against expectations of 25 basis points, which cheered the markets. Leading the set of gainers from the Nifty were rate sensitive stocks like HDFC, HCFC Bank, Mahindra and Mahindra, State Bank of India and ICICI Bank.

Today's rally was despite a weakish trend in the global markets with Asian markets falling badly in trade. Metal and mining stocks continued to see heavy selling pressure with Vedanta down a huge 4 per cent, while

Tata Steel and NMDC were the other losers. Rate sensitive real estate stocks saw a sharp spike in trade with DLF jumping 4 per cent, while other notable gainers were HDIL which jumped almost 10 per cent in trade and India Bulls Real Estate, which was up 6 per cent in trade.

Pharma stocks were relatively weak in trade with Sun Pharma and Dr Reddy's among the losers. Meanwhile, markets across Europe were trading marginally higher and saw a good recovery in trade. The German FAX, French CAC and the UK's FTSE were trading with gains of almost half a per cent.

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