Sensex up 87pts, HMT zooms 31%

The Sensex, which had gained 134 points yesterday, opened 19 points higher over its last close at 7,749. The markets advanced further in early trades before profit-taking, coupled with selective selling pressure, saw the index slip to an intra-day low of 7,727.

While the markets recovered soon from negative territory, the Sensex, on the back of renewed buying in most of the sectors, zoomed past the 7,800-mark to touch the day's high of 7,842 - up 115 points over the day's low - towards the closing bell. The level was just two points short of the all-time high of 7,844.

The Sensex pared some gains towards the fag-end, but still ended firmly above the 7,800-mark at 7,817 - up 87 points.

While 23 Sensex stocks advanced, seven declined today. Advancing shares registered a volume of 2.37 crore amounting to Rs 740.80 crore, and declining shares accounted for a volume of 34 lakh for Rs 273.43 crore.

The breadth of the market was extremely bullish - out of 2,631 shares traded, 1,771 advanced, 801 declined and 59 were unchanged today.

The BSE Healthcare index advanced 2.53% to 3,003. While the BSE Auto index moved up 1.69% to 3,261, the BSE FMCG index rose 1.53% to 1,365. The BSE Bankex was up 1.14% at 4,651. The BSE IT and BSE Oil & Gas indices ended with marginal losses.

HLL flared up 4.67% (Rs 8) to Rs 169. Other heavyweights, however, declined. ITC lost a per cent (Rs 12) to Rs 1,724. ONGC (down Rs 3 to Rs 953) and Reliance (down Rs 2 to Rs 717) also ended at lower levels.

Dr. Reddy's, Ranbaxy and Cipla soared over 4% each to Rs 844 (up Rs 34), Rs 521 (up Rs 21) and Rs 336 (up Rs 14), respectively.

While ICICI Bank gained 2% (Rs 12) to Rs 505, SBI was up 1% (Rs 9) at Rs 817. HDFC Bank slipped a per cent (Rs 4) to Rs 656.

Hero Honda moved up 3% (Rs 21) to Rs 647, and Tata Motors advanced over 3% (Rs 16) to Rs 497.

Grasim shot up 4% (Rs 50) to Rs 1,346, and ACC rose 2% (Rs 7) to Rs 442.

HDFC scaled up 4% (Rs 38) to Rs 948. While Bharti was up 2% (Rs 7) to Rs 311, L&T gained 1.6% (Rs 21) to Rs 1,341.

Wipro at Rs 733 (up Rs 6 to Rs 733) and Satyam at Rs 532 (up Rs 7 or 1.43%) ended with steady gains. While Infosys dropped a per cent (Rs 24) to Rs 2,291, TCS was marginally down at Rs 1,312.

Select PSU stocks attracted strong buying support. HMT soared 31.38% (Rs 22) to Rs 92 on reports that the government had cleared the Rs 750 crore revival package. The company, however, denied the news during trading hours today.

While Hindustan Organics advanced 12% (Rs 4) to Rs 42, National Fertilisers added 7% to Rs 43. ITI, Balmer Lawrie, RCF, MTNL, Engineers India and Syndicate Bank surged between 1-6% each.

Oil stocks continued to exhibit weakness today. Chennai Petro dropped 6% (Rs 13) to Rs 201. IBP lost 3% (Rs 13) to Rs 435. ONGC, IOC, HPCL and Gail lost around 1% each. BPCL, however, was up 1% at Rs 365.

GV Films topped the volume chart with trades in over 2.69 crore shares followed by IFSL (1.49 crore), HLL (1.21 crore), BAG Films (95 lakh) and HFCL (90 lakh).

Reliance Capital was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 294 crore followed by HLL (Rs 198 crore), Reliance (Rs 182 crore), Kotak Bank (Rs 179 crore) and SBI (Rs 102 crore).