After tumbling over 140 points yesterday, the Sensex today opened on a strong note at 7,172 - up 27 points over its previous close. Stocks rallied sharply in early trades, and the Sensex surged past the 7,200-mark to touch an intra-day high of 7,240.Profit-taking trimmed gains, which saw the index drop to a low of 7,158 in early noon trades. Recovery, led by select heavyweights, banking and tech stocks, in late noon trades saw the Sensex bounce from its lows and end the session above the 7,200 levels at 7,212 - up 67 points.While 24 Sensex stocks advanced, six declined today. Advancing shares registered a volume of 1.25 crore amounting to Rs 590.18 crore, and declining shares accounted for a volume of 20 lakh for Rs 125.69 crore.The market breadth was extremely positive. Out of 2,536 scrips traded on the BSE, 1,715 advanced, 748 declined and 73 remained unchanged.Reliance Industries moved up 1.10% (Rs 7) to Rs 621. ITC scaled up 1.46% (Rs 24) to Rs 1,704. While ONGC lost a per cnet (Rs 10) to Rs 920, HLL ended a tad lower at Rs 158.While Wipro moved up 1.71% (Rs 12) to Rs 722, Infosys gained a per cent (Rs 15) to Rs 2,333. TCS at Rs 1,312 (up Rs 3) and Satyam at Rs 496 (up Rs 5) ended with steady gains.HDFC Bank moved up 1.72% (Rs 11) to Rs 651, and ICICI Bank was up a per cent (Rs 2) at Rs 424. SBI, too, closed with a per cent gain (Rs 7) at Rs 718.Bharti, on volumes of over 19.11 lakh, shot up 5% (Rs 12) to Rs 254. L&T advanced 1.93% (Rs 23) to Rs 1,223, and HDFC was up a per cent (Rs 10) at Rs 913. Tisco jumped 2% (Rs 7) to Rs 361.Ranbaxy ended with a gain of 1% (Rs 8) at Rs 1,057. Cipla was also up 1% (Rs 3) at Rs 317. Dr. Reddy's, however, ended weak at Rs 768 - down Rs 3.Bajaj lost 1.14% (Rs 15) to Rs 1,335, and Maruti was down a notch at Rs 448. Tata Motors, too, ended weak at Rs 434 - down Rs 2. Hero Honda, however, was up over a 1% (Rs 7) at Rs 588.Banking stocks were in the limelight today with the BSE Bankex gaining 1.35% to 4,149. Federal Bank soared 11% (Rs 19) to Rs 196, and J&K Bank jumped 8.79% (Rs 35) to Rs 435. Corporation Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, UTI Bank, Vijaya Bank, IndusInd Bank and Canara Bank ended higher in a range of 4-7%. Consumer durables stocks also moved, and the BSE CD index soared 4.15% to 2,239. Titan shot up 8.11% (Rs 34) to Rs 448. While Samtel Color surged 3.59% (Rs 3) to Rs 95, Videocon was up 1.50% at Rs 81. Su-Raj Diamonds, Mirc Electronics, Blue Star, Whirlpool and BPL ended with modest gains.The BSE Metal index (up 1.65% to 5,614) and BSE CG index (up 1.31% to 3,849) also moved up today. Himachal Futuristic continued to log huge volmes. The counter witnessed trades in over 1.82 crore shares today followed by Reliance Capital (85 lakh) and Tata Teleservices (49 lakh).Reliance Capital led the value chart with a turnover of Rs 342 crore followed by Reliance Industries (Rs 139 crore), Tata Steel (Rs 128 crore) and SRF (Rs 71 crore), respectively.
