<b>Sensex ends up 146pts, new high in sight</b>

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 85 points at 14,590 and exhibited strength throughout the day. A drop in inflation further boosted sentiment in early noon deals.

Agressive buying towards the end saw the index zoom to a high of 14,663 - up 158 points. The Sensex finally ended with a gain of 146 points at 14,651 (missed a record close by a point).

Ths index is now just 73 away from its all-time intra-day high of 14,724.

The market breadth was positive - out of 2,680 stocks traded, 1,482 advanced, 1,108 declined and 90 were unchanged today.

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Reliance Energy zoomed nearly 6% to Rs 614. HDFC Bank soared nearly 5% to Rs 1,144.

ACC surged nearly 4% to Rs 934. SBI and HDFC rallied 3.7% each to Rs 1,525 and Rs 2,030, respectively.

BHEL gained 3.3% at Rs 1,538. Cipla moved up 2.7% to Rs 208. Ranbaxy and Larsen & Toubro advanced 2% each to Rs 355 and Rs 2,196, respectively.

Bajaj Auto, Reliance Communications, ICICI Bank, Hero Honda and TCS were the other significant gainers today.

Hindalco plunged over 5% to Rs 160.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

SBI topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 154.80 crore followed by GMR Infrastructure (Rs 122.60 crore), Reliance (Rs 120 crore), Reliance Natural Resources (Rs 99.60 crore) and Infosys (Rs 91.50 crore).

Reliance Natural Resources led the volume chart with trades of around 2.60 crore shares followed by IFCI (1.27 crore), Tata Teleservices (94.25 lakh), Meghmani Organics (84.25 lakh) and Nagarjuna Fertilisers (79 lakh).