Sensex pares gains; autos, cements shine

Some profit booking ahead of the weekend holidays saw the Sensex pare some gains and close at 8687, up 37 points. The Nifty moved in a range of 2632 to 2595, before settling with gains of 16 points at 2620.

Earlier in the day, the Sensex opened with a positive gap of 20 points at 8670. The index soon rallied past the 8700-mark to touch an intra-day high of 8740, up 90 points from its previous close. Thereafter, the index moved in a broad range of 8690 to 8740 for the remaining part of the trading day.

Out of the 30 Sensex stocks, 19 stocks ended with gains while 11 stocks closed in red.

Auto and cement stocks the star performers of the day. Cement major Gujarat Ambuja was the major gainer. The stock surged 5.4% to close at Rs 79. ACC rallied 4% to Rs 503, and Grasim gained 2% to Rs 1,282.

Among auto stocks Bajaj Auto and Maruti zoomed 3.5% each to Rs 2,000 and Rs 609, respectively. Tata Motors jumped 2.8% to Rs 546 while Hero Honda added 1.2% to Rs 816.

Late buying at the BHEL counter saw the stock perk up by 3.4% to Rs 1,319. HLL, too, gained 1.6% at Rs 173.

Wipro rallied 2.6% to Rs 423, and TCS moved up 1.4% to Rs 1,528. Cipla at Rs 392, Hindalco at Rs 137, Reliance Energy at Rs 575 were up 1-2% each.

On the other hand Dr.Reddy's at Rs 923, ICICI Bank at Rs 538, NTPC at Rs 103, Satyam at Rs 646 and Tata Power at Rs 439 declined around 1.5% each.

Among other gainers and losers - Jaiprakash Associates, Indian Hotels, HMT, Indian Cements, Tamilnadu Newsprint, Finolex Industries, Jet Airways and J&K Bank gained 3-5% each.

Wheras UTI Bank and Bank of India declined 2.5% each. GlaxoSmithKline Consumer, iGate Global, Punjab Tractors, United Phosphorous, Canara Bank, HCL Technologies, Corporation Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bombay Dyeing, Pfizer, Ramco System and IndusInd Bank were down 1-2% each.

Reliance Capital clocked the highest turnover with Rs 231.66 crore followed by Reliance Industries at Rs 136.92 crore and SBI at Rs 104.19 crore on the BSE.

The market breadth was slightly negative with nearly five declining stocks for every four advancing stocks. Out of a total of 2,590 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,396 stocks declined and 1,137 advanced while 57 stocks were unchanged.