Sensex up 202pts; Bharti, ONGC fuel rally

Heavy short-covering ahead of the July derivatives expiry tomorrow, coupled with good numbers by Bharti Airtel and ONGC, fuelled the rally today.

After opening with a positive gap of 40 points at 10,415, the Sensex slipped to a low of 10,363. Buying resumed soon after, and the index rallied to higher levels as the day progessed.

The Sensex zoomed to a high of 10,649 - up 286 points from the day's low - in noon deals. The index finally settled with a gain of 202 points at 10,617. The index has thus gained 5.3% (531 points) in the last three trading days.

The market breadth was fairly positive with nearly five advancing shares for every two declining stocks. Out of 2,467 stocks traded, 1,687 advanced, 705 declined and 75 were unchanged today.

INDEX MOVERS & SHAKERS

ONGC flared up 4% to Rs 1,138 backed by strong Q1 numbers and the announcement of 1:2 bonus issue.

Bharti Airtel, which announced better-than-expected Q1 numbers, gained 3.7% to Rs 383. Reliance Communications added 3.8% to Rs 258.

Ranbaxy soared over 4% to Rs 371. Tata Motors rallied nearly 4% to Rs 729.

HDFC and Maruti advanced 3.3% to Rs 1,134 and Rs 764, respectively.

HLL and Hindalco moved up nearly 3% each to Rs 241 and Rs 162, respectively. ITC added 2.5% to Rs 168.

TCS, Infosys, HDFC Bank, Dr.Reddy's and Cipla were up over 2% each at Rs 1,888, Rs 1,646, Rs 781, Rs 1,323 and Rs 228, respectively.

Reliance ended with a gain of 1.3% at Rs 1,000. Grasim, BHEL, Larsen & Toubro and Gujarat Ambuja were the other major gainers today.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 144.46 crore followed by ONGC (Rs 139.44 crore), Tata Motors (Rs 94.12 crore), Tata Steel (Rs 93.13 crore) and Reliance Capital (Rs 77.75 crore).

G V Films led the volume chart with trades of around 52.67 lakh shares followed by IDFC (32.84 lakh), MphasiS BFL (27 lakh), Reliance Petro (25.45 lakh) and Polaris (22.82 lakh).