Sensex cheers results, up 184 pts

The Bombay Stock Exchange's (BSE) 30-share sensitive index, Sensex, yesterday rose 184.48 points to 12,537.98, cheering robust second-quarter earnings by the first set of companies, led by Infosys. The Sensex is now just 74.4 points away from its lifetime high reached in May.

The broad-based S&P CNX Nifty rose by 62.5 points or 1.76 per cent to end the day at 3,621.05.

Investors' wealth rose by Rs 48,137 crore on Thursday to touch Rs 33,05,883 crore. It is still Rs 1,65,242 crore away from the Rs 34,71,125 crore recorded on May 10 when the Sensex touched 12,612.38.

The spurt in share prices yesterday, on all-round buying by institutions, was in contrast to the subdued trend in Asian markets. The rally also marked a reversal of the sluggishness of the last few trading sessions.

"The Sensex will breach the all-time high in coming days, if not tomorrow itself," said an analyst with a foreign brokerage house.

The Sensex rose by over 200 points intra-day, before profit-booking led to a marginal decline towards the end of the trading session. Except for the BSE FMCG Index, which ended lower by 0.12 per cent, all other sectoral indices ended in positive territory.

The BSE metal index was the biggest gainer at 2.64 per cent, followed by the BSE IT index (2.27 per cent), the consumer durables index (2.14 per cent), and the oil and gas index (1.97 per cent).

"Going by the initial trend, we are likely to witness a renewed surge in stock prices. Corporate earnings are robust, crude prices have come down and the interest rate cycle has turned for the better," an executive with a large fund house said.

Of the Sensex stocks, only three ended in the negative zone. HDFC was the biggest gainer on the Sensex at 4.19 per cent to Rs 1,500. The other top gainers were TCS (up 3.63 per cent to Rs 1,083), Wipro (3.17 per cent to Rs 546), Infosys (up 2 per cent to Rs 2,021), Reliance Industries (up 2.30 to Rs 1,169), Hindalco (up 2.28 per cent to Rs175), Bajaj Auto (up 2.68 per cent to Rs 3,148) and Grasim (up 2.33 per cent to Rs 2,632).

The three losers were Hindustan Lever (down 1.28 per cent to Rs 232), HDFC Bank (down 0.63 per cent to Rs 958.90) and Hero Honda (down 0.03 per cent to Rs 748).

The overall market breadth was positive with 1,412 stocks closing higher and 1,072 lower than yesterday's levels. Reliance Industries, which displaced ONGC as the most valued stock on Thursday, was the top traded counter in terms value at Rs 192 crore on the BSE.