Trading sentiment turned bullish on the Bombay Stock Exchange as the BSE Sensex surged over 250 points in pre-close trading today following a soft Rail Budget amid market participants covering their short pending positions.

The Sensex, which remained range-bound in early trade, shot up by 250.75,or 1.71 per cent, to 14,909.24 at 1500 hrs as the Railway Budget kept freight rates unchanged.

The upsurge was backed by banking and heavy machinery stocks such as HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Larsen and Toubro.

Similarly, the 50-stock National Stock Exchange index Nifty shot up 75.45 points, 1.73 per cent, to 4,424.30 at the same time.

Marketmen said the Railway Budget was in line with market expectations.

They said in view of rising trends, brokers were forced to cover their pending short positions created in the last few bearish sessions