Sensex up 66pts; Bombay Dyeing zooms 10%

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 26 points at 9,093, which turned out to be the low for the day. Sustained buying saw the index touch a new, all-time high of 9,176 - an intra-day rally  of 109 points from the last weekend close of 9,067. The Sensex shed gains towards the closing bell, and finally closed with a gain of 66 points (0.73%) at 9,134.

All the sectoral indices moved up today. The BSE Metal Index zoomed 2% (118 points) to 6,162. The BSE PSU Index advanced 1.9% (96 points) to 5,276. The BSE Consumer Durables Index moved up 1.4% (45 points) to 3,345. The BSE Bankex was up 1% (48 points) to 4,903.

Declines were marginally ahead of advances - out of 2,568 scrips traded, 1,275 declined, 1,224 advanced and 69 were unchanged today.

ONGC advanced 3.4% (Rs 38) to Rs 1,165. SBI was up Rs 10 at Rs 908. While HLL was down Rs 3 at Rs 186, Reliance was down a rupee at Rs 863.

Infosys gained 1.8% (Rs 53) to Rs 2,926. TCS declined over 2% (Rs 37) to Rs 1,649.  While Wipro dropped Rs 5 to Rs 437, Satyam was down Rs 2 at Rs 671.

Tata Motors was firm right through the session, and closed with a gain of 2.7% (Rs 15) at Rs 591. Bajaj was up Rs 33 at Rs 2,115, and Maruti was up Rs 5 at Rs 649.

L&T added 2.3% (Rs 39) to Rs 1,746. Tata Steel moved up over 2% (Rs 7) to Rs 363. ICICI Bank moved up over 2% (Rs 11) to Rs 561. HDFC was up 1.7% (Rs 19) at Rs 1,130. Hindalco, ITC, Cipla and Ranbaxy also finished with gains.

BHEL declined Rs 17 to Rs 1,424. Bharti, Reliance Energy, ACC, Grasim, Dr. Reddy's and HDFC Bank also declined.

Bombay Dyeing zoomed over 10% (Rs 34) to Rs 362. JSW gained 6% to Rs 226. Orchid Chemicals gained over 3% to Rs 238.

PSU scrips logged gains today. Nalco gained 5% to Rs 220. Mangalore Refineries and Petrochemicals also advanced 5% to Rs 50. SAIL moved up 3.6% to Rs 53. IOC was up 3% at Rs 522. RCF, BEML, Bharat Electronics, Chennai Petro, Concor, Dredging Corporation, Engineers India, HPCL and Shipping Corporation also finished with gains.

Kotak Bank declined over 4% to Rs 227. Syngenta, Balaji Telefilms, Exide and Hexware declined.

Reliance was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 483 crore followed by Suzlon (Rs 217 crore), Titan (Rs 206 crore), SBI (Rs 82 crore) and VSNL (Rs 76 crore).