Capital goods, metal scrips rally; Sensex up 41pts

After opening with solid gains at 7,810 - up 54 points over its previous close, the Sensex moved up to touch the day's high of 7,826 in early trades.

Lack of fresh buying support thereafter saw the index move in a range of 20 points between 7,785 and 7,805. A sharp correction in tech stocks followed with sluggishness in banking stocks saw the index touch a low of 7,757 in mid-noon trades - a drop of 69 points from the day's high.

Strong gains in Reliance and steep rallies in BHEL, L&T, Tisco and Hindalco triggered the recovery, and the Sensex finally ended the session with a gain of 41 points at 7,797.

While 20 Sensex stocks advanced, 10 declined today. Advancing shares registered a volume of 1.86 crore amounting to Rs 881.18 crore, and declining shares accounted for a volume of 48 lakh for Rs 299.66 crore.

The market breadth was positive - out of 2,607 stocks traded, 1,429 stocks advanced, 1,105 scrips declined and 73 were unchanged today.

The BSE Capital Goods Index advanced 4% to 4,327 and the BSE Metal Index moved up 3% to 6,064.

Reliance gained 2.14% (Rs 15) to Rs 729, and ITC advanced 1.31% (Rs 22) to Rs 1,736. ONGC, however, ended with a per cent loss (Rs 10) at Rs 956.

L&T vaulted 5.67% (Rs 73) to Rs 1,365. While BHEL flared up 5.41% (Rs 55) to Rs 1,077, Tisco jumped 4.28% (Rs 16) to Rs 384. Hindalco moved up 1.62% (Rs 21) to Rs 1,333.

Bajaj added 1.16% (Rs 18) to Rs 1,533, and Hero Honda was up 1.29% (Rs 8) at Rs 631. Tata Motors, however, lost 1.52% (Rs 8) to Rs 502.

Grasim surged 1.60% (Rs 19) to Rs 1,213. While ACC logged 1.30% gains (Rs 6) to Rs 439, Gujarat Ambuja was up a tad at Rs 66.

Infosys dropped 1.91% (Rs 45) to Rs 2,312. While Satyam was down a per cent (Rs 4) at Rs 540, TCS also ended lower at Rs 1,295 - down Rs 6.

HDFC Bank gained 1.24% (Rs 8) to Rs 684. SBI and ICICI Bank were down a per cent each at Rs 807 and Rs 513, respectively.

Capital goods stocks rose sharply today. Alstom shot up 15.74% (Rs 36) to Rs 267, and Thermax soared 13.57% (Rs 89) to Rs 744. While Siemens jumped 6.36% (Rs 138) to Rs 2,308, Amforge moved up 3.78% (Rs 7) to Rs 187. Greaves Cotton, Atlas Copco and ABB ended with gains of 3% each.

Sterlite gained over 5% to Rs 720. SAIL was up 3% at Rs 56. Ispat Industries gained over 2% to Rs 20. Essar Steel, JSW, Nalco, Sesa Goa and Essar Steel also finished with gains.

Reliance Capital topped the volume chart with trades in over 76 lakh shares followed by SAIL (69.14 lakh) and IFSL (69 lakh).

Reliance was the active counter with a turnover of Rs 499 crore followed by Reliance Capital (Rs 354 crore), VSNL (Rs 240 crore) and Tisco (Rs 131 crore).