Sensex up 99pts, cement stocks decline

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 33 points at 12,547. The index slipped a bit to touch a low of 12,531, but soon zoomed past the 12,600-mark.

Steady buying thereafter saw the index rally to a new, all-time intra-day high of 12,624. Profit-booking saw the index slip towards the day's open and then bounce back, thanks to buying in Reliance, to end with a gain of 99 points at 12,612.

The BSE Bankex advanced 2.5% to 5,809, and the Metal index rallied 2.2% to 11,077. While the Oil & Gas index surged 1.8% to 11,239, the PSU index flared up 1.6% to 6,569.

The BSE Small-cap index rallied 1.5% to 7,813, and the Mid-cap index gained 0.8% at 6,033.

Out of 2,646 stocks traded, 1,677 advanced, 914 declined and 55 were unchanged today.

INDEX MOVERS & SHAKERS

ONGC soared over 3% to Rs 1,484, and Reliance rallied 1.3% to Rs 1,170.

Late buying at the Hindalco counter saw the stock zoom to a high of Rs 243 before finishing with a gain of 4.3% at Rs 239. Tata Steel spurted 1.2% to Rs 668.

ICICI Bank advanced 3.5% to Rs 661. SBI added 2.7% to Rs 1,001, and HDFC Bank was up 1.7% at Rs 869.

Tata Power surged 4% toRs 588. Larsen & Toubro moved up 1.5% to Rs 2,814.

Cement stocks witnessed selling pressure amid reports that Commerce Minister Kamal Nath is scheduled to meet cement makers this Friday regarding high cement prices. Gujarat Ambuja dropped 2.7% to Rs 117. Grasim shed 2.5% to Rs 2,372, and ACC was down 2.3% at Rs 978.

Maruti slipped 1.4% to Rs 951. Satyam declined 1% to Rs 784.

OTHER GAINERS & LOSERS

Newly-listed Kamdhenu Ispat hit the 20% upper limit at Rs 54.90. The company had issued shares at Rs 25, and the stock trades at 120% premium to the issue price on the second day of listing.

J K Synthetics, Malwa Cotton, J K Lakshmi and Bombay Burmah also ended at their respective 20% upper circuit levels.

Shah Alloy zoomed nearly 20% to Rs 220. Eastern Silk, Bombay Rayon, Sunil Hitech, Thirmulai Sugar, Welspun Gujarat, MRPL, Adani Exports, Hinduja TMT, BASF India, FDC, Sun TV, Sterlite Optical, Bongaigaon Refinery and Chennai Petro were the other major gainers today.

Surana Telecom has plunged over 7% to Rs 41. Saint Gobain, Flex Engineering, Rane Madras, Mangalam Cement, Mysore Cement, Orient Papers, Finolex Cables, Apollo Hospitals, Zee, TVS Motors, Century Enka and GTL also declined.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 275.78 crore followed by ONGC (Rs 123.79 crore), Tata Steel (Rs 119.41 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs 108.48 crore) and SBI (Rs 102.97 crore).

IFCI led the volume chart with trades of around 1.73 crore shares followed by Essar Shipping (1.41 crore), Mascon Global (83.52 lakh), Reliance Natural Resources (66.48 lakh) and Reliance Capital Ventures (64.28 lakh).