Sensex up 74pts; ONGC ends firmly above Rs 1,000

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 34 points at 7,154, and zoomed to a high of 7,218 in early noon deals. Profit-taking at higher levels saw the index shed gains, and finally closed with a gain of 74 points (1.04%) at 7,194.

While 18 index scrips advanced with a volume of 2.18 crore shares totalling Rs 1,406 crore, declining shares clocked a volume of 68 lakh shares for Rs 289 crore.

Infosys was up 1.4% (Rs 34) at Rs 2,358. While Satyam gained close to 4% (Rs 19) to Rs 507, TCS was up 1.4% (Rs 19) at Rs 1,352.

Wipro, which was weak till the closing bell, bounced back strongly to close with a gain of 1.5% (Rs 11) at Rs 765.

ONGC gained 2.7% (Rs 26) to Rs 1,021. ITC advanced 2% (Rs 35) to Rs 1,649. Reliance was down a notch at Rs 642.

HDFC Bank zoomed over 5% (Rs 32) to Rs 634. HDFC moved up 3.8% (Rs 32) to Rs 884.

Dr. Reddy's advanced 1.7% (Rs 12) to Rs 753.  Bajaj moved up 1.5% (Rs 20) to Rs 1,373. BHEL gained 1.5% (Rs 13) to Rs 865.

Century Textiles moved up over 6% (Rs 17) to Rs 277. VSNL was also up 6% (Rs 14) at Rs 246. TNPL, BEML, Pfizer and Apollo Hospitals were up 4-5% each.

Media scrips were buzzing following the announcement of 20% FDI in FM radio by the government today. Mid-Day Multimedia zoomed 14% to Rs 73. TV Today, Balaji, Tips, NTDV and Deccan Chronicle also finished on a firm note. Adlabs was frozen at its 20% upper limit at Rs 241 - a gain of Rs 40.

IndusInd Bank declined 4.5% to Rs 67. Hinduja TMT was down 4% at Rs 308.

Bank of Punjab and Centurion Bank dropped 7% each to Rs 31 and Rs 14, respectively, after the boards approved a merger ratio of 4:9 yesterday.

While advancing shares outnumbered declining scrips 2:1 in morning deals, the picture had turned towards the closing bell today. Out of 2,549 scrips traded, 1,315 declined, 1,174 advanced and 60 were unchanged today.

HDFC Bank was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 874 crore followed by Reliance Capital (Rs 395 crore), Satyam (Rs 155 crore) and Reliance (Rs 111 crore).