Sectoral indices have a field day

Positive news in Reliance Industries led to a 4.43 per cent run up in the BSE Oil & Gas index.

The BSE Metal index surged 3.84 per cent on the back of strong investor interest in metal stocks. Metal stocks, led by sector majors Tata Steel (5.8 per cent) and Hindalco (5.6 per cent) attracted attention.

Automobile majors Tata Motors (3.1 per cent), Bajaj Auto (1.1 per cent) and Maruti Udyog (0.8 per cent), software major Satyam Computer (2.15 per cent), cement stock Grasim Industries (1.9 per cent), oil exploration major ONGC (1.6 per cent) and cigarette maker ITC (1.4 per cent) were the other top gainers today.

Housing finance major HDFC closed lower by around 2 per cent at Rs 1,274.75. Power major NTPC shed 2.45 per cent. Hero Honda eased by 1.7 per cent to Rs 857.

Ranbaxy Laboratories, Tata Consultancy Services and Cipla went down by around 1.35 - 1.5 per cent. Wipro lost 0.85 per cent while ACC and Bharti Tele-Ventures lost around half a per cent each.

Dr Reddy's , BHEL and Larsen & Toubro finished with marginal gains while Tata Power ended little changed from its previous closing price. Gujarat Ambuja Cements, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Hindustan Lever, Infosys Technologies and Reliance Energy closed with minor losses.

Though the midcap and smallcap indices ended the day with sharp gains of 0.77 per cent and 0.81 per cent, respectively, profit taking was evident on a host of counters in that space. The market breadth was positive but only just marginally as profit taking took some sheen off several large, midcap and smallcap stocks.