Buy or sell stocks, Aug. 12 -- After sharp selling on Friday last week, the Indian stock market witnessed strong value buying on Monday. The Nifty 50 index gained 221 points at 24,585, the BSE Sensex finished 746 points higher at 80,604, while the Bank Nifty index ended 505 points northward at 55,510. Leading the charge among the Nifty's top performers were Adani Enterprises, Tata Motors, and Eternal. Conversely, it was a tougher session for Hero MotoCorp, BEL, and Bharti Airtel, which ended as the major losers within the Nifty pack. Trading volumes in the NSE cash market were sharply lower by 19% compared to last Friday.

With the sole exception of Nifty Consumer Durables, all other sectoral indices ended the day in the green. Nifty PSU ...