Continuing from the Thursday's steep rally, the Sensex opened 14 points higher at 6,507 but soon lost ground to touch a low of 6,469, in early volatile trades.

The markets, however, soon recovered as steady buying in most of the counters saw the index remained firm in the first half. Rally, however, gathered more steam in the afternoon trades and the Sensex, on the back of broad-based buying towards the fag-end, surged past the 6,600-mark to touch an intra-day high of 6,618.

The Sensex finally ended the last day of the trading session with a surge of 112 points at 6,605. The Nifty, too, finished with strong gains at 2,068 - up 32 points.

Reliance [Get Quote] surged 3.38% (Rs 18) to Rs 564. While ITC clocked a per cent gain (Rs 14) to Rs 1,358, HPCL [Get Quote] surged 5.47% (Rs 17) to Rs 323. Satyam [Get Quote] moved up 3.18% (Rs 13) to Rs 421.

SBI [Get Quote] rose 2% (Rs 14) to Rs 670. While ICICI Bank [Get Quote] advanced 3.21% (Rs 13) to Rs 406, HDFC Bank [Get Quote] moved up 1.41% (Rs 8) to Rs 552.

Tata Motors [Get Quote] appreciated nearly 5% (Rs 20) to Rs 434. While Maruti [Get Quote] jumped 2.79% (Rs 12) to Rs 433, Bajaj gained Rs8 to Rs 1,099 after reporting weakness till mid-noon trades. Hero Honda, however, slipped a per cent (Rs 5) to Rs 544.

Bharti shot up 4.69% (Rs 10) to Rs 217. BHEL flared up 4.61% (Rs 35) to Rs 803 on impressive earnings report. While Hindalco [Get Quote] soared 4.66% (Rs 60) to Rs 1,354, L&T notched up 3% gains (Rs 30) to Rs 1,025. Tisco [Get Quote] also ended higher with a 2% gain (Rs 8) at Rs 409.

Gujarat Ambuja [Get Quote] added nearly 3% (Rs 12) to Rs 413. While Grasim [Get Quote] gained 1.27% (Rs 15) to Rs 1,229, ACC was up 1.11% (Rs 4) at Rs 364.

ONGC [Get Quote] (down Rs 2 to Rs 880), Infosys [Get Quote] (down Rs 9 to Rs 2,244) and Zee (down a rupee to Rs 138), however, ended on a subdued note. HDFC declined 1.35% (Rs 10) to Rs 717.