Sensex up 64pts; oil scrips in demand

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 19 points at 8,400, and moved up to a high of 8,461 in early noon deals. The index stayed above the 8,400-mark for most part of the session, and closed on a firm note with a gain of 64 points (0.76%) at 8,445.

All the sectoral indices, except BSE Teck, finished with gains. The BSE Metal Index zoomed over 3% (224 points) to 7,135. The BSE Consumer Durables Index moved up 2.8% (73 points) to 2,668. The BSE Bankex gained 1.8% (86 points) to 5,004. The BSE Auto Index was up 1.7% (59 points) at 3,608. The BSE Teck Index was down marginally at 2,144.

Advances continued to outnumber declines - out of 2,658 scrips traded, 1,359 advanced, 1,259 declined and 40 were unchanged today.

ITC zoomed 3.3% (Rs 61) to Rs 1,940. SBI gained Rs 11 to Rs 911. Reliance was marginally higher at Rs 765.

HDFC Bank gained 3% (Rs 21) to Rs 710. ICICI Bank was up 2.6% (Rs 14) to Rs 557.

Maruti advanced 5% (Rs 29) to Rs 591. Bajaj added 2% (Rs 32) to Rs 1,679. Hero Honda also moved up 2% (Rs 13) to Rs 697.

Hindalco added over 3% (Rs 5) to Rs 160. Tisco gained 1.7% (Rs 7) to Rs 429. L&T added 1.5% (Rs20) to Rs 1,381. BHEL was up over 1% (Rs 14) at Rs 1,112.

Dr. Reddy's was up Rs 9 at Rs 810. Cipla and Ranbaxy also finished with gains.

PSU oil scrips logged sharp gains today. BPCL zoomed 6% (Rs 21) to Rs 410. Chennai Petro advanced 5% (Rs 13) to Rs 266. Kochi Refineries also gained 5% to Rs 171. While IOC moved up 4% (Rs 18) to Rs 453, HPCL also added 4% (Rs 12) to Rs 324.

BEML gained 10% (Rs 76) to Rs 872, and HMT advanced 9% (Rs 7) to Rs 84 after the release of the news of signing of MoU between the companies to develop the metro project in Bangalore.

Sesa Goa was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 280 crore followed by Sterling Biotech (Rs 106 crore), SBI (Rs 70 crore), Maruti (Rs 68 crore) and Reliance (Rs 64 crore).