Sensex up 27 pts, banking stocks lifts momentum

The Sensex opened with a strong positive gap of 15 points at 6,848. Gains steadily declined and the index slipped into the red in mid-morning trades to touch the day's low of 6,819.

After reverting into the green, the market displayed a range-bound trend with an upward bias till early noon trades. Although the market showed signs of nervousness towards the closing hours, fresh bout of buying support in banking, select heavyweights and tech stocks lifted the Sensex to an intra-day high of 6,865 - up 32 points over the last close.

The Sensex finally signed off the session with a gain of 27 points at 6,860. The Nifty added nine points to close at 2,112.

While 18 Sensex stocks advanced, 12 declined today. Advancing shares accounted for a volume of 69 lakh amounting to Rs 378.49 crore, and declining shares registered a volume of 24 lakh for Rs 89.76 crore.

The market breadth was firm. Of 2,103 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,084 advanced, 965 declined and 54 remained unchanged.

ICICI Bank notched up 2% gains (Rs 9) to Rs 432, while HDFC Bank advanced 1.91% (Rs 11) to Rs 594. SBI was up a per cent (Rs 4) at Rs 686. The counter registered a volume of over 8.21 lakh.

ONGC added 1.26% (Rs 12) to Rs 930, and Reliance, on volumes of over 20.7 lakh, clocked a per cent gain (Rs 5) to Rs 574. While NTPC shed 2.41% (Rs 2) to Rs 83, HLL was down 1.10% at Rs 148. Over 10.11 lakh NTPC shares changed hands today.

Infosys (up Rs 11 to Rs 2,233) ended with steady gains, while Wipro and Satyam finished on a flat note at Rs 722 and Rs 474, respectively. TCS, however, lost a per cent (Rs 7) to Rs 1,264.

Bharti firmed up 2.36% (Rs 5) to Rs 227, while Reliance Energy gained 2% (Rs 12) to Rs 583. Hindalco (up Rs 11 to Rs 1,119), too, ended at higher levels. L&T, however, slipped a per cent (Rs 8) to Rs 1,141.

Maruti dropped 2.23% (Rs 10) to Rs 435. Hero Honda and Tata Motors ended a per cent lower each at Rs 541 (down Rs 5) and Rs 420 (down Rs 3), respectively. Bajaj, however, after a mixed outing, moved up 1.21% (Rs 15) to Rs 1,287.

Cement and pharma counters were largely weak today.

Capital goods stocks were among the notable gainers. Elgi Equipments soared 7% (Rs 3) to Rs 52, with Gammon India jumping 6.23% (Rs 18) to Rs 302. While KSB Pumps advanced 5.52% (Rs 18) to Rs 344, Alfa Laval added 2.84% (Rs 21) to Rs 745. Crompton Greaves was up 1.36% at Rs 473.

IT stocks, too, attracted decent gains. Aptech surged nearly 6% (Rs 3) to Rs 60, and Aftek Info moved up 4.14% (Rs 4) to Rs 89. While KPIT Cummins gained 3.89% (Rs 14) to Rs 370, Geometric Software was up 3.64% (Rs 19) at Rs 533. HCL Infosys, Visual Software, Polaris and HCL Tech ended with modest gains.

Select FMCG stocks, however, shed ground. Wimco shed 4.77% (Rs 2) to Rs 44, and Eveready lost 3.48% (Rs 4) to Rs 103. While Gillette declined 2.49% (Rs 19) to Rs 758, Nirma was down 2% at Rs 420.