Sensex up 75pts; Siemens zooms 11%

The Sensex continues to hold solid gains, backed by heavy buying in select old economy stocks. The index is now up 75 points at 9525.

Heavy buying at the ONGC counter has led the scrip flared up to a high of Rs 1,275. The stock is now up 5.8% at Rs 1,271.

HDFC has rallied 4.3% to Rs 1,230.

BHEL has surged 3.2% to Rs 1,581, and Maruti has gained 2.3% at Rs 675.

Reliance Energy, ITC, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel, Bajaj Auto and Wipro are up 1-2% each.

Bharti Tele has declined 1% to Rs 343.

Larsen & Toubro, HLL and Dr.Reddy's are the only other notable losers among the index stocks.

Out of 2,524 stocks traded so far, 1,587 have advanced, 871 have declined and the rest are unmoved.

Siemens has zoomed nearly 11% (Rs 396) to Rs 4,104 following the announcement made by the company that the board will meet on January 27 to consider a stock split.

LML and Insilco have hit the 20% upper limit at Rs 53.25 and Rs 27.40, respectively. PBA Infrastructure, BSEL Infrastructure, Rana Sugars, Radha Madhav, Infotech Enterprises, Bartronics and Upper Ganges have soared over 10% each. EIH, CMC, Kotak Bank, Hindustan Zinc, GTL, Geometric Software, ABB and JB Chemicals have also posted significant gains.

IPCA Labs has nosedived 9% to Rs 364. Avaya Global has plunged over 6% to Rs 458 and Nicholas has shed 5% to Rs 253. Balmer Lawrie, Coromandel Fertilisers, Bata, Swaraj Mazda, ING Vysya Bank, Moser Baer, Hinduja TMT, Indo Rama, Welspun Gujarat, Aditya Birla Nuvo and Indo Gulf are on slippery ground.