Sensex zooms 102 pts, Infosys gains 3%

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 17 points at 8,511. After dropping to a low of 8,503 in early deals, the Sensex firmed up on sustained buying in heavyweights like Infosys and Reliance. The index zoomed to a high of 8,607 - an intra-day swing of 110 points from Monday's close of 8,494. The Sensex finally closed with a gain of 102 points at 8,596.

All the sectoral indices finished with gains. The BSE Teck index advanced 1.7% (37 points) to 2,258. The BSE Bankex moved up 1.6% (75 points) to 4,799. The BSE Oil & Gas Index was up 1.5% (59 points) at 4,042. The BSE FMCG, Healthcare, Metal, Capital Goods and Consumer Durables indices also moved up today.

Advances continued to be ahead of declines - out of 2,553 scrips traded, 1,475 advanced, 1,000 declined and 78 were unchanged today.

Infosys zoomed over 3% (Rs 86) to Rs 2,738. Wipro was up Rs 5 at Rs 409.

Reliance added 2.5% (Rs 20) to Rs 817. SBI was up 1.7% (Rs 15) at Rs 897. ITC gained over 2% (Rs 2) to Rs 131.

HDFC Bank moved up 1.9% (Rs 13) to Rs 690. ICICI Bank was up Rs 6 at Rs 533.

Reliance Energy advanced over 3% (Rs 17) to Rs 562. Grasim was up Rs 21 at Rs 1,269. Gujarat Ambuja, Maruti, Bajaj Auto and Bharti also finished with gains.

HDFC was down Rs 11 at Rs 1,068. Ranbaxy dropped Rs 5 to Rs 388. HLL, BHEL, ONGC and NTPC also declined.

Prithvi Info, which was listed today, opened at Rs 324. After moving in a range of Rs 340-278, the scrip finally closed at Rs 282.

Prithvi was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 242 crore followed by Reliance (Rs 173 crore), Infosys (Rs 102 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs 99 crore) and SBI (Rs 94 crore).