Sensex gains 110pts; Everest Kanto zooms 15%

The Sensex opened with a negative gap of 21 points at 9,263, which turned out to be the low for the day. Buying at lower levels saw the index zoom to an intra-day high of 9,402 - an intra-day swing of 139 points. The Sensex finally closed with a gain of 110 points (1.2%) at 9,394.

All the sectoral indices, except Consumer Durables and Healthcare indices, finished with gains. The BSE Metal Index zoomed 2.4% (152 points) to 6,551. The BSE FMCG Index advanced 2.3% (37 points) to 1,647. The BSE Capital Goods Index gained 1.4% (78 points) to 5,695. The BSE Teck Index was up 1.3% (32 points) at 2,471.

The BSE Healthcare Index declined 20 points to 3,075. The BSE Consumer Durables Index was down 10 points at 3,217.

Advances were ahead of declines - out of 2,541 scrips traded, 1,303 moved up, 1,183 declined and 55 were unchanged today.

ACC advanced 3.6% (Rs 19) to Rs 556. Gujarat Ambuja gained over 2% to Rs 82. Grasim, however, was down Rs 6 at Rs 1,370.

HLL moved up 3.6% (Rs 7) to Rs 195. SBI added Rs 19 to Rs 942. Reliance gained Rs 8 to Rs 857. ITC was up Rs 4 at Rs 145.

Wipro moved up over 3% (Rs 14) to Rs 456.  Infosys gained Rs 29 to Rs 3,017. While TCS was up Rs 14 at Rs 1,733, Satyam was up Rs 12 at Rs 733.

Hindalco zoomed 4% (Rs 6) to Rs 147. Tata Steel added 3% (Rs 12) to Rs 380. L&T gained Rs 23 to Rs 1,731.  Bharti moved up Rs 8 to Rs 359. BHEL, HDFC Bank and Tata Power also finished with gains today.

Ranbaxy dropped to a low of Rs 355 in early deals, but finally closed with a loss of 5.9% (Rs 23) at Rs 367. Cipla and Dr. Reddy's, however, finished with gains at Rs 432 and Rs 945, respectively.

Everest Kanto Cylinders jumped 15% (Rs 35) to Rs 278. Mico zoomed over 12% (Rs 323) to Rs 2,924. Canara Bank advanced 8% to Rs 240. Mastek added 7% to Rs 558.

Sugar scrips continued to log gains. Renuka Sagar zoomed 14% (Rs 68) to Rs 544. Dwarkesh Sugar gained 9% to Rs 219. While Bajaj Hindustan added Rs 19 to Rs 290, Balrampur Chini moved up Rs 7 to Rs 113.

Abbott slipped 3.5% to Rs 702. Torrent, Wockhardt, Wyeth and Novartis also declined.

Gujarat Ambuja was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 661 crore followed by Everest Kanto (Rs 191 crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 163 crore), AIA Engineering (Rs 157crore) and Titan (Rs 126 crore).