Sensex up 56 pts, cement scrips sizzle

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 43 points at 6,485, but soon slipped to a low of 6,463.

Sustained buying in heavyweigts, especially Reliance and ONGC and tech scrips like Satyam and Wipro, saw the index cross the 6,500-mark and touch a high of 6,508.

The Sensex finally finished on a firm note at 6,498 - a gain of 56 points.
The Nifty advanced 18 points to 2,063.

While 16 Sensex scrips advanced with a volume of one crore shares totalling Rs 468 crore, 14 declined with a volume of 45 lakh shares for Rs 248 crore.

Reliance, ahead of its crucial board meeting on Monday, was the star attraction for the day. The stock surged 3.47% (Rs 18) to Rs 524. While ITC was up Rs 2 at Rs 1,299, HLL ended marginally lower at Rs 144.

ONGC advanced 1.64% (Rs 14) to Rs 857 after the company board approved 200% interim dividend for FY05. HPCL moved up 3.24% (Rs 12) to Rs 387.

HDFC Bank was up 2% (Rs 10) at Rs 503. While ICICI Bank ended off-highs with a gain of 2.10% (Rs 8) at Rs 371, SBI ended down a tad at Rs 609.

Satyam was up 1.58% (Rs 6) at Rs 409, and Wipro gained 1.18% (Rs 9) to Rs 757. Infosys, after a short stint in positive territory in late noon trades, ended down a rupee at Rs 2,065.

BHEL and Reliance Energy were down a per cent each at Rs 726 and Rs 530, respectively. Tata Power also ended weak at Rs 380 - down Rs 3.

Cement scrips logged sharp gains today. India Cements gained over 7% to Rs 60 after the board approved proposals to raise over Rs 600 crore. Prism Cements zoomed 20% to Rs 21. While Saurashtra Cement advanced 13% to Rs 22, Mysore Cement zoomed 11% to Rs 23. ACC gained Rs 4 to Rs 321. Grasim was marginally higher at Rs 1,284.

The BSE Metal index advanced 2.6% (147 points) to 5,847. Tisco advanced 3.70% (Rs 13) to Rs 359. SAIL was up 3% at Rs 61. National Aluminium also moved up 3% to Rs 190. Hind Zinc gained nearly 6% (Rs 8) to Rs 143. Jindal Iron & Steel moved up 5% to Rs 310. Jindal Vijaynagar jumped over 14% to Rs 16. Sterlite gained 2% to Rs 592. Hindalco, Sesa Goa and Jindal Stainless also closed with gains.

Ispat Industries topped the volume chart with trades in over 1.43 crore shares on the BSE. The stock moved up 6% to Rs 20. Tata Chemcials clocked an unusally high volume of nearly 35 lakh shares, but the scrip closed on a flat note at Rs 166.