Sensex surges 137 pts at close

Continuing from the last week's upsurge, the Sensex opened with a strong positive gap of 45 points at 6,464. After crossing the 6,500-mark in mid-morning trades, the index witnessed steep buying in late noon trades which saw it zoom to an intra-day high of 6,565.

The Sensex finally ended at 6,556 - up 137 points from its last close. The Nifty, too, displayed a firm outing and advanced 50 points to close at 2,058.

The breadth of the market was positive with 1,395 gainers and 964 losers on the BSE.

Heavyweights, tech and banking stocks ended with impressive gains.

Reliance, on volumes of over 25.59 lakh, advanced 1.89% (Rs 10) to Rs 533. HLL, after a steady opening, ended 4.41% higher (Rs 7) at Rs 160. ITC, however, came under sustained selling pressure, and dropped 2.77% (Rs 39) to Rs 1,362.

Infosys logged 1.38% gains (Rs 28) to Rs 2,067. While Satyam flared up 4.15% (Rs 16) to Rs 414, Wipro was up a per cent (Rs 5) at Rs 705.

SBI gained considerable ground, and added 3.22% (Rs 20) to Rs 643. While HDFC Bank, on strong buying support, advanced 4.63% (Rs 25) to Rs 564, ICICI Bank also ended at higher levels at Rs 361 - up Rs 13 or 3.64%.

ONGC notched up 2.68% gains (Rs 21) to Rs 819. HPCL moved up 3.79% (Rs 13) to Rs 363. While L&T spurted 4.34% (Rs 42) to Rs 1,005, Tata Power was up 2.18% (Rs 8) at Rs 385.

Bharti, with volumes of over 20.68 lakh, attracted considerable buying support, and moved up 4.66% (Rs 10) to Rs 230. BHEL surged nearly 4% (Rs 29) to Rs 751. While HDFC jumped 3.23% (Rs 24) to Rs 778, Reliance Energy soared 6.16% (Rs 32) to Rs 551. Zee gained 4% (Rs 6) to Rs 155, with a volume of over 17.55 lakh on the BSE.

Pharma, cement and auto stocks pared gains on profit-taking and ended off-highs.

Cipla rose 4.29% (Rs 12) to Rs 287. While Ranbaxy ended off-highs with a gain of 1.11% (Rs 12) at Rs 1,085, Dr. Reddy's slipped into the red to close at Rs 736 - down Rs 8 or 1.11%.

ACC moved up 1.91% (Rs 7) to Rs 357. While Grasim clocked a per cent gain (Rs 12) to Rs 1,328, Gujarat Ambuja closed up a tad at Rs 449.

Tata Motors added 2.56% (Rs 13) to Rs 505. Hero Honda and Maruti ended with a per cent gain each at Rs 537 and Rs 452, respectively. Bajaj was down a per cent (Rs 6) at Rs 1,038.

Metal stocks attracted considerable buying support. Mukand Iron & Steel jumped 6.36% (Rs 3) to Rs 54, and Essar Steel moved up 5.99% to Rs 40. Bhushan Steel, Monnet Ispat, Sesa Goa, Sail, Sterlite Industries, Gujarat NRE Coke and Jindal Steel ended higher in a range of 3-6%.

Select counters ended with sharp gains. VSNL spurted 10.20% (Rs 21) to Rs 230, and Hinduja TMT rose 8.93% (Rs 28) to Rs 345. While Balaj Tele gained 7.54% to Rs 104, Indo Rama Synthetics added 7% at Rs 66. Ashok Leylans moved up 6.81% to Rs 24.

Few stocks, however, failed to hold ground and ended with losses. Crompton Greaves dropped 6.10% (Rs 18) to Rs 278, and Hind Zinc shed 5.44% to Rs 152. While MTNL, on volumes of over 18.71 lakh, lost 4.63% to Rs 142, Ingersol dipped 4.25% to Rs 242. TVS Motor was down 3.17% at Rs 76.

Reliance led the value table with a turnover of Rs 135 crore, followed by Sail (Rs 113 crore), SBI (Rs 104 crore) and ONGC (Rs 100 crore), respectively.