Reflecting the day's sentiment, the Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index gained 2.67 per cent to 4306.40 points against its Friday close of 4194.55 points. With Pakistan on the verge of succumbing to intense international pressue on pull-out by troops, the index opened with a huge gap of around 67 points at 4261.02 points. On the back of fresh orders from domestic financial institutions, lead by UTI, the Sensex touched a high of 4306.40 points and closed at the same level.

The S&P CNX Nifty on the National Stock Exchange opened at 1197.95points, touched the day's high at 1232.40 points and closed slightly lower at 1230.25 points, a net gain of 32.40 points.

The combined turnover on the two exchanges was up 19 per cent to Rs 3981 crore compared to Friday's Rs 3336.56 crore. While the turnover on NSE was at Rs 2184 crore, the corresponding figure for BSE was Rs 1797 crore.

On Monday, all the index heavyweights closed with modest gains. According to some brokers, UTI made heavy purchases at the counters of SBI which went up to Rs 258.50 from its previous close of Rs 253. On NSE, the SBI scrip closed at Rs 259 against its Friday close of Rs 249.35. On BSE, the total turnover at the SBI counter was Rs 137.35 crore.

On BSE, index heavyweight HLL gained Rs 26 to close at the day's high of Rs 2450. Tisco was also on the buy list of punters with the scrip closing at Rs 160.55 against its Friday close of Rs 148.50.

Bhel was another counter which was in the limelight with the punters expecting the scrip to go upto the Rs 350-level. The scripcame into prominence after the US formally removed the sanctions from India which was imposed after the May 1998 nuclear blats. ``Now Bhel can again bid for tenders in the US after it was banned due to its close association with India's nuclear programms,'' said a broker. The brokers expect the stock to give almost the same returns as in the L&T counter. On Monday, the scrip closed its BSE session at Rs 259.20, up from its previous close of Rs 240. On NSE, the stock was last traded at Rs 260. The scrip was also the top gainer on NSE.

ICICI Bank was one of the counters which hit the upper circuit on BSE at Rs 39. ICICI, on the other hand, closed at Rs 81. Sterlite is also attracting a lot of interest and on Monday, the scrip closed at Rs 256.25, up Rs 242 on Friday. Other counters to hit the upper end of the filter were Siemens, Tisco, Grasim and Dabur.