<b>Nearing 20K:</b> Sensex up 601pts; Tata St down 8%

The Sensex touched a high of 19,893, and is now up 601 points at 19,844.

BHEL has zoomed over 7% to Rs 2,607. HDFC Bank and Larsen & Toubro have soared 6.3% each to Rs 1,643 and Rs 4,122, respectively.

ICICI Bank has surged 5.7% to Rs 1,252. Reliance Energy and Grasim have rallied nearly 5% each to Rs 1,752 and Rs 3,957, respectively.

NTPC and HDFC have advanced over 4% each to Rs 238 and Rs 2,670, respectively.

Maruti has gained 3.7% at Rs 1,225, and ONGC has added 3.4% to Rs 1,195.

Mahindra & Mahindra and Reliance have moved up 2.7% each to Rs 823 and Rs 2,764, respectively. Tata Motors is up 2.5% at Rs 830.

Hindalco, SBI, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications are the other major gainers.

Tata Steel, however, continues to languish in the negative zone and is now down 7.6% at Rs 915.