The benchmark Sensex today rose by 472.93 points -- its highest in about a month and the third-highest since April 1, this year. The maximum gain so far this fiscal has been seen on August 29 when the Sensex rose by 567.5 points, while the second-highest surge of 513.19 points was registered on June 24.

The total investor wealth, measured in terms of cumulative value of all listed stocks, rose by Rs 1,29,929.49 crore to Rs 60,24,887 crore today. This included about Rs 80,000 crore gain seen in the 30 Sensex stocks.

The value of 30 Sensex companies rose to Rs 27,56,957 crore from Rs 26,79,302 crore yesterday. Among the Sensex stocks, DLF was the biggest gainer with a rise of 8.5 per cent, while JP Associates, Tata Motors and RIL rose by over 5 per cent each.

Hindalco, TCS, Sterlite, Tata Power, Infosys,Bhel, ICICI Bank, Coal India, Jindal Steel, HUL, M&M, HDFC, Maruti, Wipro, SBI, Bajaj Auto and ITC also posted smart gains. Among the large groups, the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries group saw its market value growing by about Rs 13,000 crore.

The Anil Ambani group stocks also surged sharply today on the back of reports coming out of Annual General Meetings of as many as four group companies -- Reliance Capital, RCOM, Reliance Power and Reliance Infra. The group's market value rose by over Rs 1,500 crore as shares of all group companies gained ground.

RCom rose by 3.8 per cent, R-Cap by 1.3 per cent, R-Infra by about 2 per cent, R-Power by 2.5 per cent, Reliance Media Works by 1.7 per cent and Reliance Broadcast by 2.1 per cent.