Sensex up 70pts, bank scrips rally

After the strong rally yesterday, the Sensex opened with a positive gap of 33 points at 6,322, which also turned out to be the low for the day. After moving in a steady, positive range with gains of 70-80 points, the index moved to a high of 6,391 - a gain of 102 points from the last close - in late noon deals.

Profit-taking at higher levels did pull the index down, but the Sensex finally closed on a strong note at 6,359 - a gain of 70 points (1.11%).

Infosys advanced 3% (Rs 58) to Rs 1,997. While Satyam was up Rs 3 at Rs 413, Wipro gained Rs 6 to Rs 637.

ONGC gained 2.7% (Rs 23) to Rs 859. SBI was up Rs 9 at Rs 616.

Bajaj was firm right through the session, and closed with a gain of over 2% (Rs 24) at Rs 1,110. Hero Honda moved up 2% (Rs 10) to Rs 539. Tata Motors and Maruti also closed with gains.

Dr. Reddy's gained 3% (Rs 19) to Rs 672. Ranbaxy advanced 3% (Rs 31) to Rs 984.

L&T zoomed 4% (Rs 38) to Rs 1,034. Last-minute buying saw BHEL close with a gain of 1% (Rs 9) at Rs 822.

ICICI Bank was up Rs 10 at Rs 377.

The BSE Bankex advanced 2.6% (95 points) to 3,684. The BSE Teck index moved up 1.5% (25 points) to 1,620. The other sectoral indices also closed at higher levels.

The mood was clearly bullish - out of 2,422 scrips traded today, 1,515 advanced, 813 declined and 94 were unchanged today.

Bank scrips were on fire today. Federal Bank zoomed 14% (Rs 21) to Rs 167. Karnataka Bank jumped 20% to Rs 78. South Indian Bank advanced 17% (Rs 10) to Rs 71. ING Vysya Bank gained 9% to Rs 153. Dhanalakshmi Bank, Bank of Punjab, BoI, Canara Bank, Corporation Bank, UTI Bank, IndusInd Bank, Andhra Bank, Kotak Bank and IOB also closed with sharp gains today.

Lupin, which announced a $10.5 million licensing deal today, advanced 10% (Rs 58) to Rs 615.

SAIL topped the volume chart with trades in over 53 lakh shares followed by Ispat (41 lakh) and Tata Steel (27 lakh).

Tata Steel was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 97 crore followed by Gokaldas Exports (Rs 84 crore) and Infosys (Rs 71 crore).