Sensex gains 55 pts, Satyam up 5%

The Sensex opened five points higher over its last close at 6,249, but plunged deep into the red immediately on across-the-board selling to touch a low of 6,174.

After witnessing weak trends till early noon trades, the index drifted into the green by mid-noon on stock-specific gains. Buying intensified in late trades as hectic activity in most of the counters lifted the index above the 6,300-mark to an intra-day high of 6,306.

The Sensex, after exhibiting volatility during the intra-day trades, finally wrapped up the session with a gain of 55 points at 6,299.

Reliance advanced 2.30% (Rs 12) to Rs 542. ITC moved up 2% (Rs 28) to Rs 1,399. While ONGC slipped a per cent (Rs 5) to Rs 851, HLL closed down a tad at Rs 131.

Satyam, on impressive quarterly numbers, shot up 5% (Rs 19) to Rs 396. While Wipro was up 1.88% (Rs 11) to Rs 606, Infosys finished in the red at Rs 1,944 - down Rs 3.

BHEL jumped 3% (Rs 21) to Rs 796, and L&T soared 2.48% (Rs 24) to Rs 973. Tata Power at Rs 363 (up Rs 9 - 2.54%), Tisco at Rs 369 (up Rs 5 - 1.49%), Hindalco at Rs 1,269 (up Rs 10) and Reliance Energy at Rs 504 (up Rs 5) also registered gains.

SBI added 1.18% (Rs 7) to Rs 628. While HDFC Bank recovered towards the fag-end and ended up a rupee at Rs 546, ICICI Bank ended flat at Rs 384.

Tata Motors and Maruti were up a per cent each at Rs 438 and Rs 433, respectively. Bajaj and Hero Honda, however, ended with marginal losses at Rs 1,080 and Rs 513, respectively.

Gujarat Ambuja added 1.60% (Rs 7) to Rs 431, and Grasim gained Rs 7 to Rs 1,210. ACC, however, was down a rupee at Rs 372.

All the sectoral indices closed with gains for the second straight day. The BSE Consumer Durable Index gained 4% (64 points) to 1,582 points. While the BSE Metal Index was up 1.5% at 5,846, the BSE Teck index was up a per cent at 1,556. The BSE Small Cap Index gained 2% to 3,772.

Su-Raj Diamond gained 11% to Rs 41. Titan moved up 9% to Rs 266. BPL, Samtel Colour and Whirpool also finished with gains.

Corporation Bank, which reported a 34% decline in FY05 net, was up 6% at Rs 361. BoB dropped 10% to Rs 190. OBC was down 25 at Rs 271.

Engineers India zoomed 10% to Rs 368.

Textile scrips were back in action today. Century Textiles advanced 10% to Rs 262. Alok Industries was up 6% at Rs 64. Zodiac Clothing, Nahar Exports, Nahar Spinning and KG Denim also finished with gains.

TCS, which had dropped over 15% in the last two sessions, moved up 2% to Rs 1,142. i-flex gained 6% to Rs 588. HCL Infosys was up 5% at Rs 798. HCL Tech, Polaris and Tata Infotech closed with gains. Tata Elxsi dropped 3% to Rs 172. Geometric and CMC also declined.

The mood was clearly bullish - out of 2,385 scrips traded, 1,688 advanced, 624 declined and 73were unchanged today.

Essar Steel topped the volume charts with trades in over 76 lakh shares followed by JP Hydropower (72 lakh shares) and SAIL (43 lakh shares).

Satyam was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 143 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 118 crore) and Tata Steel (Rs 94 crore).