The Sensex opened almost flat at 13,435, up four points. Steady buying in the market saw the index display firm trend throughout the day.The buying gained momentum in the latter half of the trading day and the index rallied to a high of 13,630. After a long time, buying was seen across-the-board. All sectors along with the mid-cap and small-cap stocks posted smart gains.The Sensex finally settled with a huge gain of 186 points at 13,617.