Bargain hunting time

STOCKS REPORT

Recording the biggest ever single day gain in market capitalisation, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) recovered Rs 72,000 crore of market cap on Tuesday.

The Sensex gained 8.25 per cent (371.86 points), the fourth largest rise in stock market history, to close at 4877.02 points.

Bargain buying was seen in the heavily battered stocks, stoked in the last half-an-hour's trade by hopes that the former finance minister Manmohan Singh may become the next Prime minister instead of the Congress party president Sonia Gandhi.

The breadth of the market was positive, with gainers outpacing losers 1,158:449. The 30-scrip Sensex basket had 29 gainers. The biggest gainer in the Sensex basket was HDFC Bank, up 24.47 per cent to Rs 356.30, followed by Wipro, up 22.33 per cent to Rs 1,543.60 and Reliance Energy up 20.40 per cent to Rs 574.95.

Incidentally, the HDFC Bank scrip was the second most hammered Sensex stock on Monday, falling almost 21 per cent. This trend was seen across-the-board, with most of the heavily hammered stocks gaining handsomely over Monday's close.

The gains were seen across-the-board with the BSE Bankex index being the largest gainer today, up 12.13 per cent, followed by the IT Sector index, up 11.34 per cent. The BSE TECk index was up 9.19 per cent, FMCG index gained 7.61 per cent and the PSU index was up 6.65 per cent.

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) Nifty gained 115.20 points, its largest gain ever, to close at 1,503.95. Buying was visible with traded volumes going up.

The cash market turnover was at Rs 2,479.25 crore on the BSE and Rs 5271.45 crore on the NSE.

ITC was up 10.82 per cent to Rs 917.55, State Bank of India gained 9.81 per cent to Rs 490.85, Hindustan Lever was up 8.40 per cent to Rs 130.35 and Reliance Industries gained 7.45 per cent to Rs 433.65.

The markets were aided on Tuesday by gains in other larger Asian markets, with investors turning to sectors less-affected by government policy like software and pharma.

Infosys Technologies was up 7.95 per cent to Rs 4,886.75 and Satyam Computer was up 5.08 per cent to Rs 308. Dr Reddy's Labs gained 12.70 per cent to Rs 887.65, Cipla was up 10.35 per cent to Rs 238.80 and Ranbaxy Labs was up 3.97 per cent to Rs 1,008.15.

Tata Power was up 10.15 per cent to Rs 288.10.