Sensex gains 111pts; Wipro zooms 6%

The Sensex opened on a bullish note with a positive gap of 24 points at 6,405, which also turned out to be the low for the day. Sustained buying was  seen right through the day, especially in tech scrips and heavyweights like ITC. The index zoomed to a high of 6,509 before ending the day with a gain of 111 points (1.75%) at 6,493.

While 25 index scrips advanced, five declined today. Advancing shares logged a volume of 1.17 crore totalling Rs 589 crore, and declining scrips saw a volume of 16 lakh shares for Rs 115 crore.

Tech scrips rallied sharply today. Wipro zoomed over 6% (Rs 41) to Rs 671. Infosys advanced 4% (Rs 83) to Rs 2,253. Satyam added 3% (Rs 12) to Rs 408.

Heavyweights, too, finished on a bullish note. ITC rallied 5% (Rs 63) to Rs 1,344. ONGC moved up 3% (Rs 24) to Rs 883. Reliance was up Rs 3 at Rs 546. SBI, however, declined Rs 4 to Rs 657.

Bajaj jumped nearly 5% (Rs 48) to Rs 1,081. Hero Honda was up 3% (Rs 16) at Rs 561. Maruti and Tata Motors also closed with gains.

Gujarat Ambuja added 3% (Rs 13) to Rs 410. ACC and Grasim also moved up today.

ICICI Bank was up 2.7% (Rs 10) at Rs 393. HDFC Bank moved up 2% (Rs 11) to Rs 543.

BHEL was up 2% (Rs 17) at Rs 767. Bharti, Tisco, L&T, HPCL and Zee also closed higher today.

Ranbaxy declined 2% (Rs 20) to Rs 1,004. Reliance Energy was also down 2% (Rs 10) at Rs 530. HDFC dropped Rs 8 to Rs 727.

All the sectoral indices, except the BSE Healthcare Index, closed in positive zones today. While the  BSE Tech index was up 4% (66 points) at 1,741, the BSE FMCG Index was up 3% at 1,056 and the BSE Auto Index was up 2% 2,660.

It was a bullish, bullish outing with advances trouncing declines 6:1 - out of 2,247 scrips traded, 1,898 advanced, 309 declined and 40 were unchanged today.

PSU scrips were in demand today. FACT zoomed 11% to Rs 26. BEML advanced 9% (Rs 30) to Rs 359. Corporation Bank was up 7% (Rs 24) at Rs 372. Chennai Petro and HMT moved up 5% each.

SAIL clocked a volume of over 64.61 lakh shares followed by Ispat (over 59 lakh shares) and IndusInd Bank (44.55 lakh shares).

Gateway Distripark, which was listed today, logged a huge turnover of Rs 112 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 53 crore) and Tata Steel (Rs 52 crore).