Sensex gains 103pts; Mid-Day zooms 19%

The Sensex opened with a small positive gap of eight points at 8,543, but soon dropped to a low of 8,537. Buying emerged at lower levels in noon deals, and the Sensex zoomed to a high of 8,650 - an intra-day swing of 113 points. The Sensex finally closed with a gain of 103 points (1.2%) at 8,638.

All the sectoral indices largely finished with gains today. The BSE FMCG Index zoomed over 2% (31 points) to 1,484. The BSE Auto Index advanced 1.8% (69 points) to 3,931. The BSE Bankex was up 1.6% (76 points) at 4,741. The BSE Consumer Durables Index gained 1.5% (42 points) to 2,809. The BSE Oil & Gas Index was up 1.3% (51 points) at 4,082. The BSE Teck, PSU and Capital Goods indices also moved up today.

The BSE Metal Index declined nearly a per cent (57 points) to 5,832. The BSE Healthcare Index was down 12 points at 2,926.

Advances and declines were evenly matched - out of 2,543 scrips traded, 1,261 advanced, 1,214 declined and 68 were unchanged today.

Wipro moved up over 3% (Rs 14) to Rs 431. Satyam added 3% (Rs 20) to Rs 646. TCS was up Rs 18 at Rs 1,516.

ONGC gained 2.7% (Rs 26) to Rs 1,020. SBI advanced 2.5% (Rs 22) to Rs 897. Reliance was up 1.6% (Rs 13) at Rs 832.

While ITC added Rs 4 to Rs 129, HLL was up Rs 3 at Rs 172.

Maruti advanced over 3% (Rs 19) to Rs 598. Tata Motors added Rs 14 to Rs 551. While Bajaj was up Rs 14 at Rs 2,065, Hero Honda was up Rs 7 at Rs 842.

Gujarat Ambuja, Grasim, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, L&T and Reliance Energy also finished with gains.

Ranbaxy dropped 3% (Rs 11) to Rs 366. Tata Steel declined Rs 8 to Rs 343.

Ispat declined 8% to Rs 11. Jindal Saw dropped over 4% to Rs 372. Nicholas, MTNL and IDBI also declined.

Mico advanced nearly 5% (Rs 118) to Rs 2,488. Maharashtra Seamless moved up 4% to Rs 461. Reliance Capital, M&M, UTI Bank and Bombay Dyeing also finished with gains.

Mid-Day Multimedia zoomed 19% (Rs 16) to Rs 99. Sintex advanced over 15% (Rs 20) to Rs 150. AstraZeneca gained 10% (Rs 180) to Rs 2,047.

Reliance Capital was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 231 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 192 crore), SBI (Rs 182 crore), Titan (Rs 120 crore) and Tata Steel (Rs 97 crore).