<b>Sensex nears 18K,</b> ends up 561pts; Infy leads

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 138 points at 17,467. Steady buying, thereafter, saw the index rally to newer highs as the day progressed. The index touched a fresh all-time intra-day high of 17,953 - just 47 points shy of another milestone of 18,000.

However, a sudden bout of profit-taking at higher levels saw the index slip into red to a low of 17,288 - down 665 points from the peak. The index soon rebounded into the positive zone and recovered most of its lost ground to end at 17,847 - up 518 points.

The index has now gained a whopping 15% (2,343 points) in the last 11 straight trading sessions.

The BSE Realty index zoomed 6.5% to 9775. While the IT index soared 4% to 4783, the Oil & Gas index surged 3.2% to 9995.

The market breadth was negative - out of 2,849 stocks traded, 1,698 declined, 1,108 advanced and 43 were unchanged today.

INDEX MOVERS...

Reliance Energy was on a roller-coaster ride. The stock first zoomed 7%, and then plunged over 8% from its previous close, before finishing with a gain of 7.5% at Rs 1,450.

Infosys soared 5.7% to Rs 2,001. NTPC and Reliance Communications surged over 5% each to Rs 217 and Rs 643, respectively.

Reliance gained 2.5% at Rs 2,394. BHEL, TCS and Hindalco rallied around 4% each to Rs 2,074, Rs 1,080 and Rs 179, respectively.

Wipro and HDFC moved up 3.5% each to Rs 471 and Rs 2,594, respectively.

Larsen & Toubro, ICICI Bank, Maruti, Bharti Airtel and ONGC advanced nearly 3% each to Rs 2,896, Rs 1,088, Rs 1,020, Rs 969 and Rs 1,025, respectively.

Bajaj Auto, Tata Motors and Satyam were up around 2% each at Rs 2,541, Rs 790 and Rs 451, respectively.

...AND THE SHAKERS

Cipla has shed 2% at Rs 185. Ambuja Cements has slipped 1.6% to Rs 145, and Hindustan Unilever was down nearly 1% at Rs 220.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Reliance Energy topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 736.50 crore followed by DLF (Rs 617 crore), Reliance (Rs 567 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs 443 crore) and Reliance Natural Resources (Rs 348 crore).

Reliance Natural Resources led the volume chart with trades of around 3.65 crore shares followed by Ispat Industries (3.07 crore), Tata Teleservices (2.51 crore), IKF Technologies (2.43 crore) and Centurion Bank of Punjab (2.28 crore).

Also Read:-

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