The markets witnessed another round of bullish activity today. After opening five points higher over its last close at 7,428, the Sensex zoomed past the 7,500-mark in afternoon trades, and soared to a new intra-day high of 7,527.Selling pressure in tech stocks coupled with profit-taking in select counters saw the Sensex shed some gains towards the closing bell, and finally end the session at 7,506 - up 82 points (1.11%).While 20 Sensex stocks advanced, 10 declined today. Advancing shares accounted for a volume of 1.37 crore amounting to Rs 438, and declining shares recorded a volume of 35 lakh for Rs 250 crore.All the sectoral indices, barring BSE Teck, BSE Consumer Durables, BSE Healthcare and BSE IT, finished with gains today. The BSE Bankex zoomed over 4% (195 points) to 4,510. The BSE PSU Index moved up nearly 2% (85 points) to 4,617. The BSE Metal Index was up over a per cent at 5,942. The BSE 100 Index was also up over a per cent at 4,027. The BSE Healthcare Index was down nearly a per cent at 2,938. The BSE Teck index was down marginally at 1,912. The broad market was a tad bullish - out of 2,616 scrips traded, 1,320 advanced, 1,265 declined and 31 were unchanged today.ICICI Bank spurted 7.70% (Rs 35) to Rs 490, and HDFC Bank jumped 4% (Rs 26) to Rs 675. SBI gained 3% (Rs 22) to Rs 743.NTPC soared 4.59% (Rs 4) to Rs 97. While ONGC moved up 2.8% (Rs 26) to Rs 962, ITC gained 1.4% (Rs 22) to Rs 1,666. HLL was up 1.7% (Rs 3) at Rs 165. Reliance, however, after a mixed outing, ended weak at Rs 687 - down Rs 2.Satyam tumbled 2% (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 2.5% (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, which went ex-split today, declined 51% (Rs 535) to Rs 504. Other pharma majors ended on a mixed note.Tisco advanced 1.66% (Rs 6) to Rs 385. ACC was up 1.5% at Rs 450. Tisco, Grasim, Bharti and BHEL also finished with gains.Bank scrips sizzled today. Indian Overseas Bank zoomed 8% to Rs 89. BoI was up nearly 3% at Rs 124. Union Bank, UTI Bank, Allahabad Bank, Andhra Bank, Kotak Bank and Canara Bank also finished with gains.Print & media stocks attracted strong buying support. Zee vaulted 8.31% (Rs 14) to Rs 186. While UTV Software added 4% (Rs 7) to Rs 174, Balaji Tele was also up 4% (Rs 5) at Rs 128. NDTV, TV18, Deccan Chronicle and Navneet Publications ended with gains of 1-2% each.Zigma Software topped the volume chart with trades in over 1.53 crore shares followed by IKF Technologies (1.12 crore) and Tata Teleservices (95 lakh shares).VSNL was the most active counter with a turnover of nearly Rs 128 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 116 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs 113 crore) and SBI (Rs 84 crore).
