Sensex sizzles on Day 1, gains 155pts

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 41 points at 13,828. The index slipped to a low of 13,797 in morning deals, but bounced back and rallied to higher levels on buying in auto and technology stocks.

The index flared up to a high of 13,981 before settling at 13,942 - up 155 points on the first trading day of 2007.

The BSE Auto index zoomed over 3% to 5696. The IT index flared up nearly 2% to 5369.  While the Small-cap index surged 1.6% to 7004, the Mid-cap index was up over 1% at 5872.

The market breadth was very positive - out of 2,639 stocks traded, 1,927 advanced, 656 declined and the rest were unchanged today.

INDEX MOVERS & SHAKERS

Satyam soared 5% to Rs 508. TCS rallied 2.5% to Rs 1,249. Infosys moved up 1.5% to Rs 2,272, and Wipro spurted over 1% to Rs 612.

Bajaj Auto and Maruti flared up 4.5% each to Rs 2,739 and Rs 969, respectively. Tata Motors and Hero Honda advanced around 3% each to Rs 930 and Rs 784, respectively.

Hindalco and Gujarat Ambuja gained over 2% each to Rs 178 and Rs 144, respectively. Ranbaxy and Grasim added 1.7% each to Rs 398 and Rs 2,835, respectively.

NTPC & Larsen & Toubro were up over 1% each at Rs 138 and Rs 1,459. Reliance moved up nearly 1% to Rs 1,282.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Nissan Copper topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 269.30 crore followed by Reliance Communications (Rs 166.30 crore), Indiabulls (Rs 157.35 crore), Tech Mahindra (Rs 119.35 crore) and Infosys (Rs 67.30 crore).

Nissan Copped also led the volume chart with trades of around two crore shares followed by Silverline (1.22 crore), IFCI (1.18 crore), Pentium Infotech (76 lakh) and Indiabulls (51.30 lakh).