Sensex ends up 77pts, Ranbaxy zooms 10%

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 69 points at 15,768, and zoomed to 15,812 in morning deals. Profit-taking at higher levels saw the index slip to a low of 15,654 - down 158 points from the previous close.

Heavy short-covering, on account of the July derivatives expiry, towards the end saw the index rebound into postive zone and gain over 100 points before settling with a gain of 77 points at 15,776.

While auto, pharma and technology stocks moved up, cement, banking and capital goods stocks ended lower today.

The IT index soared almost 2% to 5,001. The Auto and Healthcare indices moved up 1.5% each to 5096 and 3788, respectively. The Bankex and Capital Goods index slipped over 1% each to 8185 and 13,247, respectively.

The market breadth was firm - out of 2,657 stocks traded, 1,533 advanced, 1,058 declined and 66 were unchanged today.

INDEX MOVERS.....

Ranbaxy zoomed 9.5% to Rs 373 on news that the company has settled the Valtrex US patent litigation with GSK Pharma.

Cipla soared 4% to Rs 194.

Maruti surged nearly 4% to Rs 841 backed by a 35% jump in Q1 bottom line.

TCS and Reliance Energy rallied around 3% each to Rs 1,185 and Rs 800, respectively.

Wipro and Mahindra & Mahindra have advanced around 2.5% each to Rs 512 and Rs 801, respectively.

Infosys, HDFC, Reliance and Bajaj Auto gained around 2% each at Rs 2,035, Rs 2,005, Rs 1,941 and Rs 2,401, respectively.

Satyam moved up 1.5% to Rs 495. Hindustan Unilever and ONGC added 1.3% each to Rs 205 and Rs 946, respectively.

....AND THE SHAKERS

ACC slumped 4.5% to Rs 1,022. Ambuja Cements plunged nearly 3% to Rs 125.

Bharti Airtel, BHEL and HDFC Bank dropped around 2% each to Rs 925, Rs 1,755 and Rs 1,219, respectively.

ICICI Bank shed 1.5% to Rs 945. Larsen & Toubro and SBI were down over 1% each to Rs 2,542 and Rs 1,551, respectively.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

HDIL topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 369.25 crore followed by IFCI (Rs 160.65 crore), Reliance (Rs 154 crore), IDFC (Rs 152 crore) and DLF (Rs 145.65 crore).

IFCI led the volume chart with trades of around 2.85 crore shares followed by Mangalore Chemicals (1.47 crore), Suryachakra Power (1.37 crore), IDFC (1.13 crore) and IKF Technologies (80 lakh).