<b>Back Above 13K:</b> Sensex zooms 221pts

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 76 points at 13,014. The index, after advancing to higher levels, dropped to a low of 12,861 in early morning deals.

The index, however, zoomed into positive zone in mid-noon trades and rallied to a high of 13,193. While banking and technology stocks attracted fresh buying, cement stocks continued to languish today. The Sensex finally settled with a gain of 221 points at 13,160.

The IT index zoomed over 4% to 5071. The Bankex rallied 2.7% to 6585, and the Consumer Durables index gained 2% at 3581.

The market breadth was negative - out of 2,620 stocks traded, 1,403 declined, 1,146 advanced and 71 were unchanged today.

A MIXED BAG

TCS and Satyam soared around 5.5% each to Rs 1,256 and Rs 435, respectively. Wipro flared up 5% to Rs 589, and Infosys surged 3.6% to Rs 2,153.

HDFC Bank and Reliance Communications rallied over 5% each to Rs 981 and Rs 428, respectively. Larsen & Toubro added 3.5% to Rs 1,541.

ICICI Bank advanced nearly 3% to Rs 855. Tata Steel spurted over 2% to Rs 452. Ranbaxy and NTPC moved up over 1.5% each to Rs 343 and Rs 142, respectively.

Bajaj Auto tumbled 4% to Rs 2,514. Gujarat Ambuja plunged 3.6% to Rs 112, and ACC dropped 2.6% to Rs 877.

Dr.Reddy's slipped over 2% to Rs 663, and Hindalco shed 1.7% to Rs 137.

Hero Honda and Cipla declined over 1% each to Rs 667 and Rs 231, respectively.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

Debutant Indian Bank topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 287.50 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 204 crore), IFCI (Rs 143.80 crore), Sesa Goa (Rs 121.90 crore) and ACC (Rs 121.85 crore).

IFCI led the volume chart with trades of around five crore shares followed by Indian Bank (3.10 crore), IDFC (76.10 lakh), Gujarat Ambuja (57.73 lakh) and Bellary Steel (54.90 lakh).