Sensex surges 73 pts, pharma stocks sizzle

The Sensex opened rather on a flat note at 6,219 and remained in positive territory through the trading session today. Though rally in select stocks lifted the gains of the index by mid-morning trades, the market exhibited a range-bound (positive) trend till mid-noon trades on lacklustre activity in most of the counters.

The sentiment, however, received a major boost towards the closing hours of the trading session as fresh broad-based buying support lifted the index to an intra-day high of 6,295.

The Sensex eventually wrapped up the session with a surge of 73 points at 6,290. The Nifty, too, added sharp gains towards the fag-end and moved up 21 points to 1,942.

ONGC advanced 1.46% (Rs 12) to Rs 837. While HLL gained 2% (Rs 3) to Rs 135, ITC moved up a per cent (Rs 15) to Rs 1,429. Reliance closed up a notch at Rs 541.

Ranbaxy soared 4.46% (Rs 41) to Rs 953. While Dr. Reddy's moved up 2.45% (Rs 16) to Rs 653, Cipla was up a per cent (Rs 2) at Rs 266.

Infosys flared up 1.93% (Rs 37) to Rs 1,939. While Satyam was up a per cent (Rs 3) at Rs 410, Wipro ended marginally higher at Rs 631.

L&T shot up nearly 3% (Rs 29) to Rs 997, and Bharti rose 2.42% (Rs 5) to Rs 216. While HPCL added 2.10% (Rs 7) to Rs 321, Reliance Energy was up 1.26% (Rs 6) at Rs 489. While Tata Power notched up 3.44% gains (Rs 12) to Rs 360, Tisco gained 3% (Rs 11) to Rs 354.

SBI moved up 1.55% (Rs 9) to Rs 608. While ICICI Bank clocked a per cent gain (Rs 3) to Rs 367, HDFC Bank was marginally up at Rs 538.

Hero Honda jumped 3% (Rs 16) to Rs 529. While Bajaj and Maruti ended with marginal gains at Rs 1,097 and Rs 413, respectively, Tata Motors, however, slipped a per cent (Rs 4) to Rs 420.

Grasim and ACC were down a per cent each at Rs 1,129 (down Rs 10) and Rs 369 (down Rs 2), respectively. Gujarat Ambuja, however, ended a per cent higher (Rs 3) at Rs 434.