Sensex up 56pts; St Bk of Travancore zooms 48%

The Sensex opened on a flat note at 8,137, and dropped to a low of 8,121 in early deals. Renewed buying in heavyweights, especially ITC and Infosys, saw the index zoom past the 8,200-mark towards the closing bell. The Sensex finally closed on a firm note with a gain of 56 points at 8,194.

All the sectoral indices, except BSE Consumer Durables Index, finished with gains today. The BSE Bankex was up 1.4% (66 points) at 4,832. The BSE Auto Index was up over a per cent at 3,497. The BSE Teck index was up nearly a per cent at 2,115. The BSE Consumer Durables Index was down 0.4% at 2,527.

The mood continues to be bullish - out of 2,675 scrips traded, 1,383 advanced, 1,244 declined and 48 were unchanged today.

SBI gained 1.6% (Rs 14) to Rs 882. ITC moved up 1.2% (Rs 23) to Rs 1,892. HLL was steady at Rs 169. Reliance, which was firm till the closing bell, was down a rupee at Rs 752.

Infosys advanced nearly a per cent (Rs 21) to Rs 2,447. Satyam and Wipro also finished with gains.

Reliance Energy zoomed 3.6% (Rs 21) to Rs 606 after the release of the news that the company had won capitve power unit bids from the state government of Maharashtra. 

Maruti moved up over 2% (Rs 10) to Rs 520, and Tata Motors was up Rs 5 at Rs 515. 

Bajaj gained nearly 4% (Rs 62) to Rs 1,650. Bharti added 2.6% (Rs 9) to Rs 343. HDFC moved up 3% (Rs 28) to Rs 960. BHEL, ICICI Bank, Dr. Reddy's and HDFC Bank also logged gains.

ACC was down nearly a per cent (Rs 4) at Rs 472. ONGC, Gujarat Ambuja, Grasim, Cipla, Hero Honda and L&T also declined.

Maharashtra Seamless jumped over 10% (Rs 48) to Rs 507.

Birla Coporation gained 9% (Rs 21) to Rs 255.  Indo Gulf was up 4% at Rs 194.

Scrips of SBI associate banks flared up today. State Bank of Travancore zoomed 48% (Rs 1,157) to Rs 3,558. State Bank of Bikaner jumped 44% (Rs 1061) to Rs 3,451. State Bank of Mysore gained 20% (Rs 619) to Rs 3,715.

Sasken was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 181 crore followed by Sterling Biotech (Rs 141 crore), Reliance (Rs 117 crore), SBI (Rs 88 crore) and Aftek (Rs 71 crore).