Sensex shoots up 473 pts; biggest gain in 4 months

The general inflation declined to 8.23 per cent in January 2011, from 8.43 per cent in December. Finance MinisterPranab Mukherjee today expressed hope that the overallinflation will come down to 7 per cent by march end, easingconcerns of further hike in interest rates.

However, Chairman of the Prime Minister''s EconomicAdvisory Council C Rangarajan said that the Reserve Bank maytake further monetary tightening steps to tame inflation,which is still uncomfortable high level.

Marketmen said some investors felt encouraged on reportsthat suspecting foul play in the huge fall in stock marketsover the past few months, Sebi has decided to probe at least25 entities, including brokerage firms, FIIs and mutual funds.

Asian stocks ended robust today as investors greeted thenews of Mubarak''s resignation with relief amid talk of lower-than-expected Chinese inflation data. Key benchmark indices inChina, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwanclosed up between 0.88 per cent and 2.53 per cent.

European markets too were trading up in their afternoondeals following positive close on Wall Street last week.

However, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) pulledout Rs 2,095.4 crore in the last week.

29 out of 30 index based counters closed with gains,while only DLF ended with small losses. .