Indices closed at their highest level since early November as strong overseas cues helped local bulls to pump up mid caps, auto companies, metal shares and pharma stocks on heavy volumes.

The Nifty closed 83 points, or 1 per cent, higher at 8,274 points, a shade below its intra-day high. The gains came on the back of highest traded volumes in the past five sessions, perhaps, pointing to more pent up demand ahead. Local bulls took heart from reasonably strong gains in some Asian markets and from a modest uptick in European equities.

Meanwhile, here are the major events of the trading day:

* The Nifty was the 2nd best performing major index in Asia on Thursday. The index closed at its highest level since November 11.

* Adani Ports, Yes Bank, Tata Motors and Tata Steel rose between 3.7-4.9 per cent and were among 44 stocks that advanced on the Nifty.

* Tech Mahindra, TCS, Bharti Infratel, HCL Technologies and Infosys lost between 0.4-2.7 per cent and were among 7 shares that lost ground on the Nifty.

* Just Dial, Yes Bank and Jubilant Lifesciences were the top traded stocks by value on the NSE.

* The Sensex notched up gains of 245 points to 26,878 points on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

* Real Estate stocks dominated the most active list for the second day. JP Associates, HDIL and Jindal Steel & Power were on the list where hectic trade was witnessed.

* Wider benchmarks were thick in action on the buy side. Strong and widespread buying, gains were seen on Nifty 100, 200 and 500 indices, along with the mid cap and the small cap shares.

* All sectoral indices, apart from the software benchmark, rose between 0.7-3.2 per cent; The IT index slipped 0.9 per cent; Metals, Auto and Pharma shares saw robust buying.

* Piramal Enterprises, Vedanta, Hindustan Zinc, IDFC and Cairn were the other winners in the day.

* MindTree Consulting, NIIT Technologies, Apollo Hospitals and Grasim lost ground.

* The trend was extremely bullish in the derivatives space where 157 futures rose versus 21 that fell.

* Overall, the bulls were in command on Dalal Street where 1963 stocks advanced compared with 886 that fell.