Sensex up 111pts, Hero Honda zooms 5%

The Sensex opened with a small positive gap of 12 points at 8,219, but dropped to a low of 8,214 in morning deals. Renewed buying saw the index touch a high of 8,353 - an intra-day swing of 139 points. The Sensex finally closed with a gain of 111 points (1.4%) at 8,318.

All the sectoral indices finished at higher levels today. The BSE Consumer Durables Index zoomed over 3% (76 points) to 2,581. The BSE Auto Index gained over 2% (77 points) to 3,632. The BSE PSU Index was up nearly 2% (89 points) at 4,772.

The BSE Healthcare Index moved up 1.7% (48 points) to 2,839. The BSE Capital Goods Index was up 1.5% (73 points) at 4,851. The BSE Teck, FMCG and Oil & Gas indices finished with gains of over 1% each today.

Advances were ahead of declines nearly 3:1 - out of 2,511 scrips traded, 1,842 advanced, 629 declined and 40 were unchanged today.

Hero Honda zoomed over 5% (Rs 39) to Rs 789. Bajaj was up over 3% (Rs 54) at Rs 1,821. Maruti and Tata Motors also finished with gains.

NTPC was firm right through the session, and closed with a gain of 4% (Rs 4) at Rs 102. Ranbaxy gained over 3% (Rs 11) to Rs 383.

Grasim added over 3% (Rs 39) to Rs 1,258. ACC was also up over 3% (Rs 15) at Rs 477.

Wipro gained 3.9% (Rs 15) to Rs 392. TCS was up Rs 16 at Rs 1,475. While Infosys was up Rs 14 at Rs 2,651, Satyam gained Rs 7 to Rs 642.

ONGC advanced 2% (Rs 18) to Rs 964. Reliance was up Rs 3 at Rs 790. While HLL closed at Rs 170, ITC finished at Rs 127. SBI, however, was down a rupee at Rs 833.

HDFC gained over 3% (Rs 35) to Rs 1,040. L&T added Rs 25 to Rs 1,540. BHEL was up Rs 15 at Rs 1,206. HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Tata Power also finished with gains.

Ramco System zoomed 8% (Rs 31) to Rs 400. Nicholas advanced 8% (Rs 20) to Rs 260. Zee declined over 3% to Rs 144.

Reliance was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 170 crore followed by SBI (Rs 149 crore), Titan (Rs 136 crore), Suzlon (Rs 123 crore) and Reliance Capital (Rs 95 crore).