Bulls resurfaced with a vengeance on Thursday as investors bought into front line pharma and software counters in anticipation of more gains ahead. Sentiment changing for the better after giant Tata Consultancy Services announced a plan to consider buying back its shares.

The Nifty added 51 points to close at 8,775 points snapping a two-session decline. Stocks are consolidating at 4-month highs in anticipation of fresh buying momentum and that came after TCS, India's most valuable company, informed investors its board would discuss a buy back plan on February 20. That news sparked a rally in IT stocks as also in pharma counters.

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Here are the major events of the trading day:

* Sun Pharma, Infosys, Tata Motors, Maruti and Aurobindo Pharma rose 2.4-4.1 per cent and were among 37 shares that gained on the Nifty.

* ITC, Bharti Infratel, Asian Paints, BPCL and Coal India lost 0.6-2.2 per cent and were among 14 stocks to lose ground on the Nifty.

* Infosys Technologies was the top traded counter, up 3.2 per cent, on expectations it would follow its larger rival in announcing a buy back of its shares. State Bank, Colgate, TCS and Tata Motors were in heavy demand.

* Jindal Steel & Power, South Indian Bank, Vedanta, NHPC and SAIL were among the most active shares tracked on volume.

* Gains spread across the broader market with the Nifty 100, 200 and 500 indices rising 0.9 per cent and even higher gains being observed on the mid cap and small cap benchmarks.

* Sectoral benchmarks were mostly up. The maximum gains were reserved for software, pharma, auto, metals and realty stocks. Bits of selling was observed in FMCG shares and media companies.

* Cadila Healthcare, Bajaj Finance, ABB, Hindustan Zinc, Havells and Titan were some stocks that gained ground in the broader markets.

* The Sensex added 146 points to close the day at 28,301 points on the Bombay Stock Exchange. Sun Pharma was the top gainer while ITC lost the most. The maximum number of trades were seen on State Bank.

* The mood was intensely bullish in the wider market with 1,137 shares rising compared to 474 that fell in the wider market.

* Bulls ruled the roost in the derivatives segment with 153 futures gaining ground versus 26 that slipped.