Sensex gains 69pts, Rs 1,000cr deal in HDFC

The market witnessed another round of strong performance today. After opening marginally higher over its last close at 7,080, the index soon pierced the 7,100-mark in early trades.

The Sensex zoomed past the 7,150-mark to touch a new, all-time intra-day high of 7,167 (up 91 points from its last close) in noon trades.

The market showed signs of profit-taking towards the closing bell as weakness in banking, tech and other select old economy counters saw the gains of the index slip below 50 points.

The Sensex, however, managed to recover towards the fag-end, and finally ended at a new closing high of 7,145 - up 69 points.

While 23 Sensex stocks advanced, seven declined today. Advancing shares accounted for a volume of 3.51 crore amounting to Rs 2,072.59 crore, and declining shares registered a volume of 20 lakh for Rs 219.64 crore.

The market breadth continued to remain weak - out of 2,565 stocks traded on the BSE, 966 advanced, 1,534 declined and 65 remained unchanged today.

Reliance, which clocked a volume of over 64.8 lakh, moved up 1.49% (Rs 10) to Rs 655. ONGC added 1.51% (Rs 14) to Rs 959. ITC moved up 2.14% (Rs 33) to Rs 1,579, and HLL was up a per cent (Rs 2) at Rs 154.

HDFC advanced 3.37% (Rs 28) to Rs 872. The counter witnessed a block deal of over 1.23 crore shares sold by Standard Life for Rs 1,018 crore.

TCS soared 2.31% (Rs 30) to Rs 1,334. Satyam was up a per cent (Rs 4) at Rs 512, and Wipro was up a tad at Rs 759. Infosys, after a mixed outing, ended marginally lower at Rs 2,340.

L&T shot up 3.30% (Rs 36) to Rs 1,137, and Tisco moved up 1.83% (Rs 7) to Rs 364.

Maruti climbed 3.13% (Rs 14) to Rs 468. While Bajaj gained 1.75% (Rs 22) to Rs 1,270, Tata Motors gained 1.67% (Rs 7) to Rs 425.

Cipla, continuing its recent upsurge, jumped 2.58% (Rs 8) to Rs 313. Dr. Reddy's was up a per cent (Rs 8) at Rs 729. Ranbaxy, however, closed weak at Rs 1,080.

HDFC Bank slipped 2.57% (Rs 15) to Rs 586. SBI lost a per cent (Rs 4) to Rs 661. ICICI Bank finished with steady gains at Rs 421.

FMCG scrips clocked decent gains. United Breweries flared up 11% (Rs 47) to Rs 470, and Radico Khaitan moved up 3.34% (Rs 12) to Rs 373. Williamson Tea, Dabur, Nirma and Ruchi Soya were up 2% each.

HDFC led the value chart with a turnover of Rs 1,039 crore followed by Reliance Industries (Rs 307 crore), Tisco (Rs 202 crore) and Reliance Capital (Rs 171 crore).