The market witnessed another round of strong bullish activity today. After opening five points higher over its last close at 7,428, the market-mood appeared optimistic thereafter as Sensex advanced further in the first half. While the rally continued, the Sensex in the process zoomed past the 7,500-mark in afternoon trades and soared to a new all-time intra-day high of 7,527 - up 99 points over the day's low of 7,428.However, selling pressure in tech stocks coupled with profit-taking in select counters saw the Sensex shed some gains towards the closing hours and finally end the session above the 7,500 level at 7,505 - up 82 points.While 20 Sensex stocks advanced, 10 declined today. Advancing shares accounted for a volume of 1.37 crore amounting to Rs 438.23 crore and declining shares recorded a volume of 35 lakh for Rs 249.97 crore.The market breadth was slightly positive on the BSE. Of 2,615 scrips traded today, 1,321 advanced, 1,263 declined and 31 remained unchanged.ICICI Bank spurted 7.70% (Rs 35) to Rs 490, and HDFC Bank jumped 4% (Rs 26) to Rs 675. SBI scaled up 3% (Rs 22) to Rs 743.NTPC soared 4.59% (Rs 4) to Rs 97. While ONGC scaled up 2.83% (Rs 26) to Rs 962, ITC gained 1.35% (Rs 22) to Rs 1,666. HLL was up 1.73% (Rs 3) at Rs 165. Reliance, however, after a mixed outing, ended weak at Rs 687 - down Rs 2.Satyam tumbled 2.10% (Rs 11) to Rs 522. Infosys and TCS lost a per cent each to Rs 2,222 (down Rs 14) and Rs 1,283 (down Rs 10), respectively.Bajaj, on late buying support, moved up 2.49% (Rs 34) to Rs 1,407. Tata Motors and Maruti ended with modest gains at Rs 473 and Rs 465, respectively. Hero Honda, however, shed 1.76% (Rs 11) to Rs 605.Ranbaxy, after a stock split tanked 51.48% (Rs 535) to Rs 504. Other pharma majors ended on a mixed note.Tisco advanced 1.66% (Rs 6) to Rs 385, while L&T tumbled 2% (Rs 25) to Rs 1,231.Print & Media stocks attracted strong buying support. Zee vaulted 8.31% (Rs 14) to Rs 186. While UTV Software added 4.22% (Rs 7) to Rs 174, Balaji Tele was up 3.94% (Rs 5) at Rs 128. NDTV, TV18, Deccan Chronicle and Navneet Publications ended 1-2% higher.Banking scrips, too, rallied sharply. IOB moved up 7.94% (Rs 7) to Rs 89. PNB, BoI, UTI Bank, OBC, Andhra Bank and Union Bank of India were up in a range of 1-4%.VSNL led the value chart with a turnover of Rs 127 crore, followed by Reliance (Rs 115 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs 113 crore), SBI (Rs 84 crore) and Indiabulls (Rs 62 crore), respectively.
