Sensex ends above 6,600; Alstom Projects zooms 13%

Continuing from the yesterday's steep rally, the Sensex opened 14 points higher at 6,507 but soon lost ground to touch a low of 6,469 in early volatile trades.

The markets, however, soon recovered as steady buying in most of the counters saw the index remained firm in the first half. Rally, however, gathered steam in the afternoon trades and the Sensex, on the back of broad-based buying towards the fag-end, surged past the 6,600-mark to touch an intra-day high of 6,618.

The Sensex finally ended the last day of the week with a gain of 112 points at 6,605.

Reliance surged 3.38% (Rs 18) to Rs 564. While ITC clocked a per cent gain (Rs 14) to Rs 1,358, HPCL surged 5.47% (Rs 17) to Rs 323. Satyam moved up 3.18% (Rs 13) to Rs 421.

SBI rose 2% (Rs 14) to Rs 670. While ICICI Bank advanced 3.21% (Rs 13) to Rs 406, HDFC Bank moved up 1.41% (Rs 8) to Rs 552.

Tata Motors appreciated nearly 5% (Rs 20) to Rs 434. While Maruti jumped 2.79% (Rs 12) to Rs 433, Bajaj gained Rs8 to Rs 1,099 after reporting weakness till mid-noon trades. Hero Honda, however, slipped a per cent (Rs 5) to Rs 544.

Bharti shot up 4.69% (Rs 10) to Rs 217. BHEL flared up 4.61% (Rs 35) to Rs 803 on impressive earnings report. While Hindalco soared 4.66% (Rs 60) to Rs 1,354, L&T notched up 3% gains (Rs 30) to Rs 1,025. Tisco also ended higher with a 2% gain (Rs 8) at Rs 409.

Gujarat Ambuja added nearly 3% (Rs 12) to Rs 413. While Grasim gained 1.27% (Rs 15) to Rs 1,229, ACC was up 1.11% (Rs 4) at Rs 364.

ONGC (down Rs 2 to Rs 880), Infosys (down Rs 9 to Rs 2,244) and Zee (down a rupee to Rs 138), however, ended on a subdued note. HDFC declined 1.35% (Rs 10) to Rs 717.

The undertone was clearly bullish - Out of 2,368 scrips traded on the BSE today, 1,964 advanced, 368 declined and 36 were unchanged today.

Reliance was the top traded counter with a turnover of nearly Rs 114 crore followed by SBI (Rs 89 crore) and Gateway Distripark (Rs 74.89 crore).

Tata Tele-services was the most active counter with a traded volume of  over 68 lakh shares followed by Ispat Industries (67.59 lakh shares) and Gateway (65.48 lakh).

Alstom Projects, which announced a Rs 1,550 crore deal from NHPC, zoomed nearly 13% (Rs 23) to Rs 203.