HUL, Bhel lift Sensex past 15700

The benchmark Sensex, helped by strong performances from Hindustan Unilever (HUL), Bharat Heavy Electricals (Bhel) and Larsen & Toubro, rose 166.65 points or 1.07 per cent to another record high of 15,732.20.

Shares of Hindustan Unilever rose by as much as 5 per cent to Rs 204. HUL, the country's largest consumer products manufacturer, was the most sought-after counter on Monday, following its announcement that it would consider first-ever buyback of shares on July 29.

Analysts expect HUL, which is promoted by Unilever, would use as much as Rs 700 crore from its cash surplus of Rs 2,500 crore to buyback the shares. Rules allow the company to buyback up to 25 per cent of its networth. Broader NSE-50 Index of the National Stock Exchange gained 53.30, or 1.2 per cent, to 4,619.35.

Heavyweights BHEL, which won a Rs 1,829-crore order for setting up three thermal power units, was the biggest gainer (up 7.12 per cent to Rs 1,765.45) on the Sensex, followed by Larsen & Toubro (up 5.62 per cent to Rs 2,614.40). L&T was lifted by announcements on infrastructure spends, which would benefit big players in the sector.

In contrast, IT and bank indices were dragged down from Friday, due to selling in heavyweights such as Infosys Technologies (down 2.01 per cent to Rs 1,946.80) and ICICI Bank (down 1.53 per cent Rs 970.05).

The market breadth was a tad positive "� out of 2,710 stocks traded, 1,333 advanced, 1,302 declined and 75 were unchanged on Monday.

"Any major correction in the market will come only after the market breaches 16,200 to 16,300 levels. It would be a major correction, about 10 to 15 per cent, given the current size of the rally," said Sandeep Wagle, chief technical officer at Angel Broking.

Aggressive buying towards the closing bell saw the index soar to a high of 15,773 "� up 295 points from the day's low. The Sensex finally ended with a smart gain of 167 points at 15,732.

The BSE Capital Goods index soared 4 per cent to 13,596. The FMCG and Realty indices surged over 2 per cent each. The Auto index rallied 1.4 per cent.

Foreign institutional investors bought Rs 1,025.57 crore worth of shares on Monday, according to the provisional figures available on NSE.