RALLY TIME: Sensex zooms 186pts

The Sensex opened with a marginal gain of four points at 13,435, and then there was no looking back...

Steady buying saw the index display a firm trend throughout the day. The buying gained momentum in the latter half, and the index rallied to a high of 13,630.

The Sensex finally settled with a smart gain of 1.4% (186 points) at 13,617.

While the Mid-cap index gained 1.7% to 5547, the Small-cap index moved up nearly 2% to 6417. The BSE Metal index surged over 2% to 8784. The FMCG index also gained over 2% to 2034.

Almost 70% of the traded stocks ended with gains today. Out of 2,583 stocks traded, 1,794 advanced and 719 declined.

"Momentum favours a continued uptrend. We expect the Nifty to touch
the 4,000-level in the short-term," said Viral Doshi, an analyst with Networth Stock Broking. For the Sensex, the next crucial level is 13,850, he added.

INDEX MOVERS & SHAKERS

Reliance Energy, Bharti Airtel, ITC, TCS and Satyam rallied around 3% each to Rs 533, Rs 624, Rs 184, Rs 1,148 and Rs 453, respectively.

Tata Steel, Wipro, Gujarat Ambuja and HLL surged around 2.5% each to Rs 475, Rs 569, Rs 137 and Rs 249, respectively.

Hindalco, NTPC and SBI advanced over 2% each to Rs 175, Rs 139 and Rs 1,234, respectively. Tata Motors and Maruti gained nearly 2% each at Rs 818 and Rs 886, respectively.

Reliance Communications, Larsen & Toubro, ACC and ICICI Bank were up around 1.5% each at Rs 416, Rs 1,348, Rs 1,073 and Rs 871, respectively.

Reliance moved up 1.3% to Rs 1,274, and Dr.Reddy's added 1% to Rs 731.

HDFC slipped 1.4% to Rs 1,643.

"Market was expecting a correction for some days. That, we believe, happened mid-way yesterday. From now, it will be a one-way street upwards to 3,950-4000 for the Nifty," said a technical analyst with another local brokerage.

The Sensex saw a 200-point fall during mid-session yesterday before the markets wiped off the loss to end in positive territory.

The firm bull trend on the Indian bourses was in contrast to the dull session in Asia. Japan's Nikkei was flat at 0.05% gains while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index closed the day with a gain  of 0.28%. Taiwan (0.66%) and Korea's Kospi (0.26%) also ended with modest gains.

LISTING GAINS

Info Edge was listed at Rs 480 on the BSE as against its issue price of Rs 320. The stock zoomed to a high of Rs 624 before settling at Rs 593, a gain of 85% (Rs 273) on Day One.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Debutant Info Edge led the value chart with a turnover of Rs 465 crore followed by Mahindra Gesco (Rs 188 crore), Infosys (Rs 144.50 crore), Tech Mahindra (Rs 139 crore) and DCB (Rs 93 crore).

DCB topped the volume chart with trades of around 1.55 crore shares followed by Info Edge (78 lakh), Ashok Leyland (60.50 lakh), IFCI (40.20 lakh) and Hanung Toys (37 lakh).