Sensex ends up 120pts; Tata Tea zooms 4%

Weak cues from the global markets saw the Sensex open with a huge negative gap of 144 points at 14,074. The index slipped to a low of 14,046 in early deals. However, fresh buying at lower levels saw the index recoup losses as the day progressed.

Technology stocks attracted aggressive buying in the latter part of the session, which saw the index rebound into positive zone. Buying in select heavyweights, coupled with short-covering towards the end, saw the index soar to a high of 14,365 - up 319 points from the day's low. The Sensex finally ended with a gain of 120 points at 14,338.

The market breadth was positive - out of 2,660 stocks traded, 1,418 advanced, 1,153 declined and 89 were unchanged today.

TECHIES LEAD BOUNCE

Technology stocks rallied today after being out of favour for quite some time. Satyam soared 3.5% to Rs 472. Infosys surged 2.5% to Rs 1,986, and Wipro rallied 2% to Rs 543.

HDFC gained 3.6% to Rs 1,819. Tata Motors, Larsen & Toubro and Reliance Communications have advanced over 2% each to Rs 728, Rs 1,739 and Rs 504, respectively.

SBI, HLL, ONGC and NTPC were up around 1% each at Rs 1,298, Rs 203, Rs 911 and Rs 164, respectively.

HDFC Bank slipped 1.3% to Rs 1,075. Tata Steel and Gujarat Ambuja shed 1% each to Rs 624 and Rs 114, respectively.

Tata Tea zoomed to a high of Rs 941 before settling with a gain of 4% at Rs 914 on a report on the website of The New York Times that Coca-Cola board has agreed to buy vitamin water maker Glaceau for $4.2 billion in cash and stock. The deal is likely to be announced later today.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

Suzlon Energy topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 230.40 crore followed by Advanta (Rs 180 crore), Reliance (Rs 147.30 crore), Divi's Labs (Rs 139.50 crore) and Reliance Capital (Rs 116 crore).

Reliance Natural led the volume chart with trades of around 2.25 crore shares followed by Reliance Petro (62 lakh), Nagarjuna Fertilisers (56.80 lakh), IFCI (55 lakh) and Idea (51.80 lakh).