Mumbai, Apr 29: The Reserve Bank's surprise decision to keep the key lending rates unchanged triggered a fervent buying activity in stock markets with the benchmark Sensex and the wider Nifty spurting by over 360 points and 100 points respectively. The RBI projection of economic growth at a healthy 8.0 to 8.5 per cent for 2008-09 and the Centre's decision to extend the tax-holiday scheme to export-oriented software technology parks and refineries also enlivened the sentiments The 30-share Sensex on Bombay Stock Exchange rose by 362.50 points, to 17,378.46, a gain of 2.13 per cent over its last close. The broader 50-share S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also shot up by 105.85 points, or 2.08 per cent, to close at 5,195.50. Buying activity was widespread across secots and all sectoral indices closed the day firm.

Interest rate sensitive sectors realty and banking saw brisk buying activity with sectoral major DLF soaring by 8.57 per cent, followed by Unitech at 8.18 per cent. Other leading realty stocks Parsvanath, Omaxe, IndiaBulls Real Estate, Ansal Infra and HDIL also posted handsome gains in the ragne of 4-7 per cent. per cent IT and refinery shares too hogged the limelight after that the government extended a tax holiday for export-oriented companies. While, Reliance Industries ended the day higher by 2.35 per cent, among the IT pack, Satyam Computers gained 8.22 per cent, Infosys Tech 5.15 per cent, Wipro 4.7 per cent and TCS 3.15 per cent. Positive factors, however, failed to trigger any major activity in the small-cap and the mid-cap segments, indices of which moved up by about 1.0 per cent.