Rally continues, Sensex soars 73 pts at close

A mixed trend prevailed in the first half of the trading session today. After opening on a flat note at 6,599, the index switched between positive and negative zones before dipping to a low of 6,588 on selective selling pressure.

A steady recovery pulled the markets into the green in afternoon trades, with the index soaring to a high of 6,685 on near across-the-board buying towards the fag-end of the trading session.

The Sensex finally settled the session with a surge of 73 points at 6,671. The Nifty, too, rallied sharply to end 31 points higher at 2,075.

While 23 Sensex stocks advanced, seven declined today. Advancing shares accounted for a volume of 1.10 crore amounting to Rs 681.96 crore, and declining shares registered a volume of 29 lakh for Rs 115.57 crore.

The market breadth, however, ended weak. Of 2,023 scrips traded on the BSE, 1,193 stocks declined, 787 advanced and 43 remained unchanged.

ONGC jumped 2% (Rs 18) to Rs 902. While ITC clocked a per cent gain (Rs 17) to Rs 1,531, HLL gained 1.78% (Rs 2) to Rs 132. More than 2 lakh HLL shares changed hands.

Wipro vaulted 4.24% (Rs 29) to Rs 716, and Infosys, on volumes of 6.56 lakh, advanced 1.31% (Rs 28) to Rs 2,201. Satyam, however, lost a per cent (Rs 4) to Rs 449. Over 13.87 lakh Satyam shares changed hands on the BSE.

BHEL, on reports of possible 10% stake sale by govt, advanced 4.56% (Rs 40) to Rs 910. Bharti jumped 3.23% (Rs 7) to Rs 227, and HDFC moved up 1.92% (Rs 15) to Rs 771. While Tata Power flared up 3.20% (Rs 12) to Rs 385, L&T surged 2% (Rs 22) to Rs 1,102. HPCL, however, lost 1.65% (Rs 6) to Rs 331.

Ranbaxy, which clocked a volume of over 1.74 lakh, perked up 2.65% (Rs 28) to Rs 1,068. While Dr. Reddy's gained 2.55% (Rs 18) to Rs 722, Cipla was up 1.12% (Rs 3) at Rs 285.

Hero Honda added 2.51% (Rs 14) to Rs 593. Bajaj was up a per cent (Rs 7) at Rs 1,220, while Tata Motors added 1.16% (Rs 5) to Rs 449.

HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank dropped nearly 2% each to Rs 531 (down Rs 9) and Rs 392 (down Rs 7), respectively. SBI, however, was up a per cent (Rs 6) at Rs 683. The counter registered a volume of over 20.64 lakh.

Capital goods stocks firmed up on strong buying support. Alstom shot up nearly 10% (Rs 19) to Rs 206, with Alstrom Project gaining 4% (Rs 9) to close at 231. While KSB Pumps moved up 3.78% (Rs 11) to Rs 302, Thermax was up 1.68% (Rs 11) at Rs 668.

Select metal stocks, however, shed ground on selling pressure. Southern Iron & Steel dropped 9.90% (Rs 2) to Rs 23, and Jindal Steel dropped 3.61% (Rs 33) to Rs 879. While Jindal Vijaynagar Steel declined 3.32% (Rs 10) to Rs 295, Sesa Goa lost 2.97% (Rs 19) to Rs 615. PSL, Ispat, Jindal Stainless and Bhushan Steel were down in a range of 1-2%.

Among the sectoral indices BSE CD index rose 1.99% (up 72 pts) to 3,703, while BSE Teck index gained 1.42% to 1,756. BSE IT index was up 1.34% to 2,698.

Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 161 crore, followed by SBI (Rs 117 crore), Infosys (Rs 86 crore), Satyam (Rs 84 crore) and Tisco (Rs 37 crore), respectively.