Sensex ends up nearly 300pts, NTPC gains 7%

The Sensex opened with a negative gap of 56 points at 18,681, and dropped to a low of 18,636 in early deals.

Renewed buying at lower levels in HDFC Bank, NTPC and L&T saw the index zoom to a high of 19,210 - an intra-day swing of 574 points.

The Sensex finally closed with a gain of 298 points (1.59%) at 19,035.

All the sectoral indices, too, finished with sharp gains today. The BSE Bankex zoomed 352 points (3.5%) to 10,538. The BSE MidCap Index gained 168 points (2.1%) to 8114.

The market breadth was bullish - out of 2,821 scrips traded, 1,852 logged gains today.

INDEX GAINERS...

NTPC zoomed over 7% (Rs 19) to close at Rs 272.

HDFC Bank gained nearly 7% (Rs 103) at Rs 1,578.

L&T advanced nearly 5% (Rs 202) to Rs 4,369.

HDFC and SBI were up nearly 3% each at Rs 2,587 and Rs 2,296, respectively.

ICICI Bank and Tata Steel finished with gains of over 2% each at Rs 1,176 and Rs 833, respectively.

.... AND LOSERS

Wipro slipped over 3% to Rs 441. TCS, Infosys and Satyam also declined today.

MOST ACTIVE COUNTERS

Reliance Natural Resources was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 535 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 360 crore), Reliance Petroleum (Rs 323 crore), NTPC (Rs 212 crore) and L&T (Rs 200 crore).