It was a day of celebration, consolidation and fresh expectations on the market. After a day of big gains on Thursday marking the comfortable victory of the BJP-led National Democratic Allliance, trading on Friday went the anticipated way.

The Sensex opened the day higher at 5005.93 points. During the day it traded in the range of 4942.67 and 5091.24 points. With a net gain of 18.64 points, the index finally closed at 4981.74 points, which is also the all-time high close. The BSE also recorded the highest ever turnover at Rs 3609.23 crore from 388,980 trades. With an aggregate turnover of Rs 4,192.59 crore, the NSE also recorded its highest ever turnover coming from the highest ever total number of trades at 514,942.

Profit-booking emerged as expected, though brokers kept their hopes alive of the Sensex reaching a new level in the near future. Their optimism stemmed from the fact that FIIs brought in Rs 171 crore on Thursday. Market players see the return of the FIIs, who have been net sellers to the extent of over Rs 850 crore over the last one month.