According to brokers, absence of continuous selling by the retail investorswhich was seen over the last few weeks prompted Thursday's recovery in themarket. Also, with UTI extending some helping hand at lower levels sinceWednesday, other funds also stepped up their buying activities on Thursdayin a number of old and new economy counters. The resultant effect was abroad-based rally in the market with most of the pivotals showing a strongclosing with respectable volumes.

However, brokers are eagerly waiting for some definite trend to emerge onFriday. According to Chirag Sanghvi at Asit C Mehta InvestmentIntermediaries, after opening strong, the market might close a little loweron Friday. ``The chances of it going down massively is not there. 4450 looksa good level, and if the market closes above that level, then we are likelyto see good upward movement from Monday onwards,'' said Sanghvi.

Another factor still weighing in the minds of brokers is that the mood ofthe public is yet to change. ``This is because of the disbelief factor.Unless the public believe that the rally is for good, we cannot be sure of asustained buying. Till then we will witness this kind of volatility, withinstitutions stepping in when prices hit the lower circuit and investorsexiting when the market rallies back,'' says a broker.

The sops for the infotech and pharmaceutical sector announced on Wednesdayby the finance minister had a positive impact on the market's sentiment. Asa result, indices opened strong in the morning and gained further ground astrading progressed during the day. The sentiment remained very strong for amajor part of the day and almost all the software and pharma stocks showedhandsome gains. The impact of bullish sentiment was also seen innon-software-pharma stocks. Pivotals also registered impressive gains.

Mirroring the sentiment, the Sensex gained 218.63 points and closed at4553.92 against Wednesday's 4335.29. Intra-day it had touched a peak of4568.54 points. The low for the day was at 4335.04, marginally lower thanyestaerday's close. The Nifty also gained 64 points and closed at 1380.20points. It opened at 1317.95 points, and touched a peak of 1385.15 points.The opening was the low for the day.

On the BSE, advances stood at 971 while the number of declines at 531. Atthe same time, around 130 stocks remained unchanged. The trading volume onthe BSE stood at Rs 2435 crore, and the same figure on the NSE stood at Rs3052 crore.

Meanwhile, stocks which jumped between 8 per cent and 12 per cent wereSatyam Comp, Zee, HFCL, Silverline, Global Tele, Rolta, DSQ Soft, DigitalEquipment, HCL Info, Padmini Poly, HPCL, SSI, VSNL, SSI, Shyam Tele,McDowell, Mosaer Baer, SQL Star, LCC Info, German Remedies, Nath Seeds, MircElectric, Jain Studio, Alok Textile.

Other gainers for the day were: Infosys, Sterlite, Tata Elxsi, BPL, HughesSoftware, Aptech, Sibar Soft, Valiant Com, Sri Adhikari, Knoll Pharma,Britania, Filmcity Media, GV Films, ITI, TPL, Ram Info.

At the same time, stocks which dipped more than 7.9 per cent were: Nalco,Kal Power, Agervo, Advent Computers, Gemini Com, Asian Hotels.

Other losers included Guj Amb Cement, ICICI Bank, Octogon Tech, InvestTrust, Toubro Ind, DSJ Com, Autolite, Syncom Form, Khandwala Securities.