The market continued to downplay the serious monsoon threat, as the Sensex made further advancement in today's trades by breaching the 6,900-mark levels.After opening strong at 6,877 (up 17 pts over its last close), the index inched lower for a while to touch the day's low of 6,858 in early trades. The Sensex soon reversed its trend and breached the 6,900 levels in late morning trades, before profit-taking trimmed its gains in mid-noon trades.Extended buying support in select old and new economy stocks towards the fag-end saw the Sensex surge to an intra-day high of 6,916.The Sensex finally ended 47 points higher at 6,907. The Nifty, too, rallied sharply and gained 17 points to 2,129.While 23 Sensex stocks advanced, seven declined today. Advancing shares accounted for a volume of 95 lakh for Rs 448.23 crore, and declining shares registered a volume of 4 lakh amounting to Rs 35.48 crore.The breadth of the market was impressive, with gainers outpacing losers on the BSE. Of 2,092 scrips traded - 1,090 advanced, 939 declined and 63 remains unchanged.Infosys, which registered a volume of over 2.11 lakh, jumped 1.14% (Rs 25) to Rs 2,258. While Wipro logged 1.72% gains (Rs 12) to Rs 735, Satyam advanced 1.64% (Rs 8) to Rs 481, TCS was up a per cent (Rs 8) at Rs 1,272.Bharti, on volumes of over 10.93 lakh, vaulted 5.45% (Rs 12) to Rs 240. While Tata Power climbed 2.71% (Rs 10) to Rs 389, Hindalco moved up 1.38% (Rs 15) to Rs 1,134. Tisco was up 1.63% (Rs 5) at Rs 340.ONGC clocked a per cent gain (Rs 6) to Rs 936. Reliance and HLL were up a rupee each at Rs 575 and Rs 149, respectively. ITC, however, was down half a per cent (Rs 7) at Rs 1,564. Over 16.77 lakh Reliance shares changed hands today.SBI at Rs 689 (up Rs 3) ended with steady gains, while ICICI Bank was up a notch at Rs 433. HDFC Bank, however, ended lower at Rs 592.Dr. Reddy's added 2% (Rs 14) to Rs 737. While Rabaxy added Rs 4 to Rs 1,070, Cipla, however, was down a per cent (Rs 2) at Rs 288.Grasim rose 2.90% (Rs 32) to Rs 1,121, while cement majors were weak.Hero Honda gained 1.15% (Rs 6) to Rs 546, while Bajaj dropped 1.17% (Rs 14) to Rs 1,222.Metal stocks notched up significant gains. Kirloskar Ferous soared 10.16% (Rs 3) to Rs 37, and Jindal Stainless jumped 5.64% (Rs 7) to Rs 123. Essar Steel, Bhushan Steel, Uttam Galva, Mukand, Tata Spone, Jindal Vijaynagar Steel and Vesuvius ended 2-4% higher.
