Banking scrips lead Sensex rally, up 47 pts

The Sensex exhibited volatility in the opening bell. After resuming 19 points higher over its last close at 7,524, the index came under the correction mode and slipped below the 7,500-mark to touch an intra-day low of 7,473.

The market soon recouped from its lows and headed northward following recovery in most of the counters. After crossing the next level of 7,550-mark in early noon trades, the Sensex rallied sharply in mid-noon trades before selective profit-booking dragged it into the red towards the closing hours of the trading session.

However, a strong bout of buying support towards the fag-end saw the Sensex bounce back sharply and touch a new all-time intra-day high of 7,565 - up 92 points over the day's low.

The Sensex finally signed off the session with a gain of 47 points at 7,552.

While 20 Sensex stocks advanced, 10 declined today. Advancing shares accounted for a volume of 1.29 crore amounting to Rs 647.54 crore and declining shares registered a volume of 74 lakh for Rs 137.02 crore, respectively.

The market breadth, however, was weak on the BSE. Of 2,592 stocks traded, 757 advanced, 1,791 declined and 44 remained unchanged.

ICICI Bank, continuing with its sharp upsurge, flared up 3.75% (Rs 18) to Rs 508. SBI gained a per cent (Rs 6) to Rs 749.

ITC moved up 1.59% (Rs 26) to Rs 1,693. ONGC and Reliance were up a per cent each at Rs 969 (up Rs 8) and Rs 691 (up Rs 4), respectively. NTPC, however, shed 2.79% (Rs 3) to Rs 94, and Reliance Energy lost 1.69% (Rs 11) to Rs 631.

TCS dropped 1.44% (Rs 18) to Rs 1,265, while Wipro lost a per cent (Rs 5) to Rs 708. Infosys (up Rs 5 to Rs 2,227), however, ended with steady gains.

Dr. Reddy's soared 7.31% (Rs 56) to Rs 822, while Ranbaxy ended marginally higher at Rs 506. Cipla, however, dipped 1.86% (Rs 6) to Rs 336.

Bajaj was up 1.13% (Rs 16) at Rs 1,410. Hero Honda, Tata Motors and Maruti were up a per cent each at Rs 610 (up Rs 5), Rs 476 (up Rs 4) and Rs 469 (up Rs 5), respectively.

Bharti rose 3% (Rs 8) to Rs 275. While L&T dropped 1.16% (Rs 14) to Rs 1,228, Tata Power slipped a per cent (Rs 4) to Rs 398.

Banking stocks attracted strong buying support. Bank of India surged 8.44% (Rs 10) to Rs 134. While Corporation Bank moved up 7.54% (Rs 32) to Rs 463, Andhra Bank advanced 6.13% (Rs 7) to Rs 113. Union Bank of India, UTI Bank, Indus Ind Bank and BoB logged 3-5% gains.

SBI was the most active traded counter on the BSE with a turnover of Rs 142 crore, followed by VSNL (Rs 121 crore), Reliance (Rs 117 crore) and Reliance Capital (Rs 94 crore), respectively.