Sensex up 97pts; tech, pharma scrips rally

Backed by heavy inflows of foreign and local funds (net buying of over Rs 1,000 crore on Monday), the Sensex opened with a positive gap of 18 points at 11,104. Unabated buying, despite the negative news flow of a 25 bps rate hike by the US Fed, talks of more hikes and soaring curde oil prices, saw the index hold firm right through the day.

Frenzied buying, coupled with short-covering towards the end, saw the index zoom to a new, all-time intra-day high of 11,198. The index finally settled with a huge gain of 97 points (0.9%) at 11,183.

The Teck Index soared over 2% to 2694, and the Healthcare Index surged 1.6% to 3763. The Consumer Durables and Metal indices were up nearly 1% each at 3194 and 8563, respectively.

While the BSE Smallcap Index rallied over 2% to 6415, the Midcap Index was up over 1% at 5197.

The market breadth was extremely positive. Out of 2,558 stocks traded, 1,649 advanced, 848 declined and 61 were unchanged today.

INDEX MOVERS & SHAKERS

Gujarat Ambuja surged 3.8% to Rs 103. Hindalco moved up 3.5% to Rs 179.

Ranbaxy gained 3.4% at Rs 411 after the company announced the acquisition of 96.7% stake in Romania's largest generics firm, Terapia, for $324 million.

Satyam surged 3.6% to Rs 851. While Infosys rallied 2.7% to Rs 3,038, Wipro moved up 2.6% to Rs 543.

BHEL added nearly 2% at Rs 2,150. ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank advanced 1% each to Rs 598 and Rs 750, respectively.

NEWS-DRIVEN MOVES

NDTV soared nearly 7% to Rs 243 after the company announced a tie-up with Genpact to offer media outsourcing services.

Hindustan Construction rallied to a high of Rs 185 after the company announced the conversion price of FCCBs at 50% permium (Rs 248). The stock finally ended with a gain of 3% at Rs 181.

Gujarat NRE announced conversion price for FCCBs at 24% premium at Rs 125. The stock touched a high of Rs 102, but close flat at Rs 100.

OTHER GAINERS & LOSERS

VSNL zoomed 10% to Rs 471. Adlabs, Crest Animation, Financial Technologies, Hindustan Media, Mid-day and UTV Software were up 3-7% each.

Novartis led the rally in pharma stocks with a gain of  6.5% at Rs 538 followed by Divi's Lab at Rs 1,790 - up 5.5%. Aurobindo, Biocon, GSK Pharma, Glenmark, Lupin, Orchid, Pfizer, Sun and Unichem gained 1-5% each.

State Bank of Mysore slumped 10% to Rs 6,957. SAIL dropped 5.3% to Rs 76.65.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

VSNL led the value chart with a turnover of Rs 149.63 crore followed by Ranbaxy (Rs 115.59 crore), Reliance Communication Ventures (Rs 111.60 crore), ONGC (Rs 82.41 crore) and Infosys (Rs 81.11 crore).

Reliance Natural Resources topped the volume chart with trades of around 1.99 crore shares followed by SAIL (82.36 lakh), Reliance Energy Ventures (45.75 lakh), Himachal Futuristic (45.48 lakh) and Prism Cements (39.22 lakh).

F&O WATCH

Huge short-covering in the March Nifty futures saw it end at 3369  - a premium of 15 points when compared to the spot Nifty at 3354. The April Nifty settled at 3361 - a premium of seven points and the May Nifty closed at 3355 - a premium of one point.

The open interest in March futures was down by 9,36,600. While the April series added 43,32,000 in open interest, the May series saw the open interest drop by 600.