Asian markets presented mixed cues and there was nothing much to cheer about on the European front as well. Still, stocks, led by frontliners from metal, banking, automobile and realty sectors, moved up north in style in the last hour of the session and guided the key indices Sensex and Nifty to their best close since August 2011.

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Information technology, consumer durables and power stocks too had a fairly good outing. Some PSU stocks posted strong gains. FMCG, pharmaceuticals, capital goods and oil stocks came off their lows thanks to some brisk buying in the closing minutes.

The Sensex, which declined to 17,609.43, losing nearly 100 points in early trade, spurted to 17,879.46 during the closing minutes and eventually ended the session with a gain of 123.43 points or 0.7% at 17,830.75, its best close since 4 August 2011.

The Nifty settled at 5412.35, slightly off the day's high of 5423.40, gaining 44.20 points or 0.82%. The index touched a low of 5338.90 in early trades on Thursday. The Nifty too closed at its best level since early August 2011.

Mirroring strong buying at side counters, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices moved up by 1.27% and 1.18% respectively.

According to the data released by the Trade Secretary Anand Khullar, India's January exports rose 10.1% to $25.4 billion while imports rose 20.3% to $40.1 billion, leaving a trade deficit of $14.7 billion. India's exports reached $242.8 billion between April and January, Khullar said, citing provisional data.

Sterlite Industries ended stronger by 4.6%. Jindal Steel notched up a gain of 3.85%. Tata Power, Bajaj Auto, HDFC Bank and Tata Motors gained 2.5% - 3.5%. Wipro, ICICI Bank and Mahindra & Mahindra moved up by 2% - 2.3%.

NTPC closed 1.65% up and Infosys surged 1.4%, while Hindustan Unilever and Tata Consultancy Services ended higher by 1.2% and 0.7% respectively. State Bank of India, Maruti Suzuki and HDFC ended with marginal gains.

Reliance Power, up 5.2%, was the top gainer in the Nifty index. BPCL closed 4.65% up. SAIL, Kotak Bank, Cairn India, Punjab National Bank, Reliance Communications, Siemens, Sesa Goa, Dr Reddy's Laboratories and Power Grid Corporation gained 1% - 4%.

Hindalco ended well off the day's high, but still settled in negative territory at Rs 158.75 with a loss of around 1.3%. The stock recovered after the company said it posted a net profit of Rs 450.69 crore in the December quarter, down by about 2% from the net profit it had posted in the corresponding quarter last year. Earlier, the stock had plunged sharply sharply following its subsidiary Novelis reporting a loss of US$12 million dollar in the third quarter, as against a net loss of US$46 million in the same period last year.

Sun Pharmaceuticals, DLF, Bharti Airtel, Larsen & Toubro, ITC, Reliance Industries, ONGC and GAIL India drifted down by 0.4% - 1.3%. Grasim Industries, Ranbaxy Laboratories and HCL Technologies also closed on a weak note.

Jubilant Foodworks ended stronger by nearly 9% on impressive results. Bhushan Steel, HDIL, JSW Steel, REC, Union Bank of India, Suzlon Energy, Essar Oil, Indiabulls Real Estate, Unitech, Hindustan Zinc, Reliance Capital, Dish TV India, Pantaloon Retail, Apollo Tyres, IFCI and Tata Global Beverages also ended with handsome gains.

Manappuram Finance and Muthoot Finance went down by 6.9% and 5.6% respectively after the central bank expressed concerns about the pace of growth of gold loans even as public and private sector banks are seeing a slowdown in credit take-off.

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Adani International, Adani Power, Coromandel International, Shriram Transport Finance, Engineers India, Shree Renuka Sugars, Aurobindo Pharma, Corporation Bank, Adani Ports and Lupin ended with sharp losses.

The market breadth was strong. Out of 3010 stocks traded on BSE, 1828 stocks moved up. 1057 stocks declined and 125 stocks ended flat.