Bulls came roaring this morning, as the BSE benchmark index, the Sensex, zoomed from circuit-to-circuit in a matter of few seconds.
The Sensex opened with a huge gap of 1,306 points (10.7%) at 13,479, this morning following a near-clear mandate for UPA in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections.
Trading was suspended for two hours, as the index zoomed 1,790 points (14.7%) to 13,963. As soon as trading resumed at 1155 hrs, the index surged to 14,273 - up 2,099 points (17.2%) - and trading was suspended for the day.
(As per a Sebi circular, the stock exchanges calculate circuit limits on a quarterly close basis. These percentages are translated into absolute points of index variations (rounded off to the nearest 25 points in case of SENSEX). On March 31, 2009, the last trading day of the quarter, Sensex closed at 9709. A 20% rise from this level, translates to 1,942 points. Hence, the Sensex hit the upper limit after the index absolute points gain rose over 2,000 points.)
Hopes of a stable government at the Centre for the next five-years, and positive moves such as stimulus and reforms taking place during this period have boosted the sentiment.
Life in a way has come in full circle for the UPA. In 2004, when the UPA coalition came to power, the Sensex hit its 10% lower circuit and tanked over 11% eventually. Today, however, the index has done a complete vice versa, the index has hit its 20% upper limit and has closed for the day.
The change in fortunes is for obvious different reasons, last time around a coalition government backed by Left support was coming into power, while this around it's an almost majority UPA government coming to power.
The BSE Mid-cap index zoomed 12% to 4,266, and the Small-cap index soared 9% to 4,669.
Only 846 stocks were traded today - 833 stocks advanced, 11 declined and two were unchanged.
SIZLLING STARS..
BHEL sky-rocketed 33% to Rs 2,266. Larsen & Toubro zoomed nearly 30% to Rs 1,280.
DLF and ICICI Bank soared around 25% each to Rs 325 and Rs 720, respectively.
HDFC, Reliance, Reliance Communications, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Infrastructure, Jaiprakash Associates and SBI surged 21-23% each.
Tata Steel, Sterlite, HDFC Bank, Tata Motors, Grasim, Wipro, Hindalco, Tata Power, ONGC, TCS, Mahindra & Mahindra, NTPC and ACC gained 12-18% each.
Hindustan Unilever up 6% at Rs 239 was the least gainer among the index stocks.
VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS
Reliance topped the value chart with a total turnover of Rs 8 crore. It was followed by Larsen & Toubro (Rs 4 crore), Unitech (Rs 3.32 crore), ONGC (Rs 3.06 crore) and Reliance Infra (Rs 3.04 crore)on the BSE.
Gateway Distriparks topped the volume chart with trades of around 1 million shares. It was followed by Cals Refineries (661,700), K Sera Sera (581,750), IFCI (547,737) and Unitech (536,533).
