The market witnessed another round of strong performance today. After opening marginally higher over its last close at 7,080, the index soon pierced the 7,100-mark in early trades. While gains in most of the counters kept the momentum going in the first half, the Sensex in early noon trades zoomed past the 7,150-mark to touch a new all-time intra-day high of 7,167 (up 91 pts from its last close) following across-the-board buying.The market showed signs of nervousness towards the closing hours of the trading session as weakness in banking, tech and other select old economy counters saw the gains of the index slip below 50 points.However, the Sensex managed to recover some of its losses towards the fag-end and finally ended with a new closing high of 7,145 - up 69 pts.While 23 Sensex stocks advanced, seven declined today. Advancing shares accounted for a volume of 3.51 crore amounting to Rs 2,072.59 crore, and declining shares registered a volume of 20 lakh for Rs 219.64 crore.The market breadth continues to remain weak inspite of the Sensex closing firm. Of 2,065 stocks traded on the BSE - 732 advanced, 1,273 declined and 60 remained unchanged.Reliance, which clocked a volume of over 64.8 lakh, flared up 1.49% (Rs 10) to Rs 655. While ONGC, on volumes of over 4.50 lakh, added 1.51% (Rs 14) to Rs 959, ITC moved up 2.14% (Rs 33) ton Rs 1,579. HLL was up a per cent (Rs 2) at Rs 154. Reliance Energy, however, eased into the red to Rs 652 - down Rs 3. The counter registered a volume of over 12.53 lakh.TCS soared 2.31% (Rs 30) to Rs 1,334. Satyam was up a per cent (Rs 4) at Rs 512, and Wipro was up a tad at Rs 759. Infosys, after a mixed outing, ended marginally lower at Rs 2,340.L&T shot up 3.30% (Rs 36) to Rs 1,137, while Tisco logged 1.83% gains (Rs 7) to Rs 364. HDFC advanced 3.37% (Rs 28) to Rs 872, with block deals of over 1.23 crore. Standard Life today sold 4.9% stake in HDFC for Rs 1,018 crore.Maruti climbed 3.13% (Rs 14) to Rs 468. While Bajaj gained 1.75% (Rs 22) to Rs 1,270, Tata Motors gained 1.67% (Rs 7) to Rs 425.Cipla, continuing with its recent upsurge, jumped 2.58% (Rs 8) to Rs 313, while Dr. Reddy's was up a per cent (Rs 8) at Rs 729. Ranbaxy, however, closed weak at Rs 1,080.HDFC Bank slipped sharply towards the closing hours and dropped 2.57% (Rs 15) to Rs 586. SBI, on volumes of over 7.79 lakh, lost a per cent (Rs 4) to Rs 661, while ICICI Bank finished with steady gains at Rs 421.BHEL declined 1.38% (Rs 12) to Rs 854.FMCG scrips clocked decent gains. United Breweries flared up 11% (Rs 47) to Rs 470, and Radico Khaitan moved up 3.34% (Rs 12) to Rs 373. William Tea, Dabur, Nirma and Ruchi Soya were up 2% each.Select banking stocks, however, edged lower. BoI dropped 4.15% (Rs 4) to Rs 96, and Andhra Bank declined 2.84% (Rs 3) to Rs 96. Union Bank of India was down 1.70% at Rs 104.HDFC led the value chart with a turnover of Rs 1,039 crore, followed by Reliance Industries (Rs 307 crore), Tisco (Rs 202 crore) and Satyam (up Rs 137 crore), respectively.
