Sensex up 63pts, Bajaj gains 4%

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of points at 29 points at 8,663, and zoomed to an intra-day high of 8,726 in late noon deals. The Sensex finally finished the day with a gain of 63 points (0.73%) at 8,698.

All the sectoral indices finished at higher levels. The BSE Consumer Durables Index zoomed over 4% (101 points) to 2,563. The BSE Auto Index gained 2.9% (104 points) to 3,720. The BSE SmallCap Index advanced over 2% (127 points) to 5,824.

The BSE Teck Index was up 1.3% (29 points) at 2,164. The BSE Healthcare, Oil & Gas, MidCap and PSU indices closed with gains of over 1% each today.

The BSE Bankex, however, was down marginally (19 points) at 5,106.

The sentiment turned positive - out of 2,543 scrips traded, 1,466 advanced, 1,044 declined and 33 were unchanged today.

Auto scrips logged gains today. Bajaj zoomed 4.5% (Rs 76) to Rs 1,768. Maruti moved up 3.6% (Rs 20) to Rs 578. Tata Motors gained 3.5% (Rs 19) to Rs 553.

Tech stocks, too, finished at higher levels. Satyam moved up 2.6% (Rs 15) to Rs 575. Wipro gained over 2% (Rs 9) to Rs 381. Infosys was up 1.5% (Rs 37) to Rs 2,554.

Dr. Reddy's advanced 3.5% (Rs 30) to Rs 883. Cipla gained 2.8% (Rs 10) to Rs 390. Ranbaxy was up 1.9% (Rs 9) at Rs 500.

Hindalco moved up 3% to Rs 152. BHEL was up 1.7% (Rs 21) to Rs 1,245. L&T and Tata Steel also finished with gains.

HLL was up over 2% to Rs 185. While ONGC gained Rs 9 to Rs 1,070, SBI was up Rs 6 at Rs 945.

Engineers India zoomed 12% (Rs 64) to Rs 605. Welpsun-Gujarat Stahl Rohren gained 11% (Rs 9) to Rs 96 after the announcement of winning a Rs 500 order from Indonesia.

Reliance was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 167 crore followed by Reliance Capital (Rs 102 crore), McDowell (Rs 97 crore), SBI (Rs 90 crore) and Maruti (Rs 85 crore).