Sensex up 20pts, Alok gains 11%

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 41 points at 7,701, and moved up to a high of 7,732 in early morning deals. Profit-taking at higher levels saw the index slide to a low of 7,644 - down 88 points from the intra-day high. The Sensex finally closed with a gain of 20 points at 7,680.

All the sectoral indices closed with gains. The BSE MidCap Index was up 1.6% (62 points) to 3,972. The BSE SmallCap, BSE Auto and BSE Consumer Durables indices closed with gains of over 1% each.

The mood continued to be bullish - out of 2,638 scrips traded, 1,848 advanced, 737 declined and 53 were unchanged today.

TCS gained 3% (Rs 42) to Rs 1,364.

Gujarat Ambuja advanced 3% to Rs 65. ACC also moved up 3% (Rs 13) to Rs 472.

Maruti was up over 2% (Rs 11) at Rs 473. Tata Motors and Hero Honda also closed with gains.

ITC was up Rs 12 at Rs 1,716, and Reliance was up Rs 2 at Rs 698.

HDFC Bank declined over 2% (Rs 13) to Rs 636. BHEL slipped 1.8% (Rs 20) to Rs 1,086.

ONGC was down 1.3% (Rs 13) at Rs 980. Wipro, Hindalco, Bharti, Tata Power and Bajaj also declined.

Alok Industries advanced 11% (Rs 8) to Rs 79. Bombay Dyeing gained 6% at Rs 419.

MphasiS, which had declined yesterday, gained 8% (Rs 19) to Rs 258.

McDowell was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 111 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 103 crore), IFSL (Rs 102 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs 85 crore) and Infosys (Rs 73 crore).