Bulls back in form; Sensex zooms to 9539

Unabated all-round buying saw the Sensex scale past another landmark - 9500. The index zoomed to touch a new, all-time intra-day high of 9547 before settling with a gain of 1.3% (149 points) at 9539.

The BSE Midcap Index surged 1.7% to 4563 and the BSE Smallcap Index soared 2% to 6144.

The BSE Healthcare Index gained 1.9% at 3172. The BSE Bankex, Auto, TECk, Metal and Oil & Gas indices also finished with smart gains today.

The market breadth was extremely positive with an advance-decline ratio of nearly 5:1. Out of 2,603 stocks traded today, 2,115 stocks advanced, 449 scrips declined and the rest were unchanged.

Reliance moved up smartly in the latter half of the trading today. The stock touched an all-time high of Rs 923 before settling with a gain of 2.3% (Rs 21) at Rs 920.

While ITC gained 1.9% at Rs 143, HLL was marginally up at Rs 196. ONGC was up 1.4% at Rs 1,210.

TCS and Wipro advanced 2.5% each to Rs 1,732 and Rs 473, respectively. While Satyam was up 1.6% at Rs 743, Infosys ended with 1% gain at Rs 3,011.

Grasim was the major gainer among the Sensex stocks. The stock surged nearly 4% to Rs 1,429. Other cement stocks also witnessed aggressive buying amid reports of price hike in Mumbai by some leading players. ACC gained 3.2% to Rs 548, and Gujarat Ambuja finished 2.3% higher at Rs 81.10.

Dr.Reddy's rallied 3.3% to Rs 995. HDFC was up 3% at Rs 1,230.

Maruti zoomed 3.2% to Rs 666. Hero Honda at Rs 856 and Tata Motors at Rs 645 were up around 1% each. Bajaj Auto finished with marginal gains at Rs 2,017.

Bharti Tele, Tata Steel, Tata Power, ICICI Bank, BHEL, NTPC and Hindalco also finished with substantial gains.

MNC pharma stocks witnessed heavy buying today. Merck zoomed 10.5% to Rs 587. Pfizer advanced 10% to Rs 1,132. GlaxoSmithKline Pharma rallied 6.4% to Rs 311. Novartis and Wyeth surged 4.5% each. While Aventis Pharma moved up 2.6%, Abbott India gained 1%.

Domestic pharma stocks, too, rallied today. JB Chemicals gained 6.7% to Rs 104. Lupin , IPCA Labs, FDC, Cadila, Divi's Lab, Aurobindo, Wockhardt, Strides, Nicholas Piramal and Matrix finished with gains of 1-3% each.

Punjab Alkalies Chemicals, Chowgule Steel and Hitech Gears ended at the maximum upper limit of 20% each. DCW, Bank of Rajasthan, Aarvee Denim and Ruchi Soya finished with gains of over 10% each.

Reliance was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 174.95 crore followed by ICICI Bank (Rs 129.98 crore), SBI (Rs 75.26 crore), Gujarat Narmada (Rs 67.76 crore) and Reliance Capital (Rs 63.90 crore).

Gujarat Narmada topped the volume chart with trades of around 53.47 lakh shares followed by ICICI Bank (21.59 lakh shares), IDFC (20.61 lakh shares), Reliance (19.24 lakh shares) and ITC (16.14 lakh shares).