Sensex zooms 180pts; SBI gains 7%

The Sensex opened with a positive gap of six points at 6,245. Sustained buying across-the-board saw the index zoom to a high of 6,432 - a rally of 193 points (3.09%). The Sensex finally closed with a gain of 2.88% (180 points) at 6,419.

While 27 index scrips advanced with a volume of 2.11 crore shares totalling Rs 1,099 crore, three declined with a volume of 24 lakh shares for Rs 51 crore.

Heavweights logged sharp gains today. SBI zoomed 7% (Rs 41) to Rs 623. Infosys advanced 4.5% (Rs 88) to Rs 2,039. Reliance gained more than 3% (Rs 17) to Rs 523.

ITC moved up a per cent (Rs 15) to Rs 1,401. HLL was up a per cent (Rs 2) at Rs 153. ONGC was also up a per cent (Rs 8) at Rs 797.

Gujarat Ambuja gained nearly 7% (Rs 28) to Rs 448. Grasim added 2% (Rs 24) to Rs 1,316, and ACC was up Rs 2 at Rs 351.

Ranbaxy moved up 5% (Rs 51) to Rs 1,073. Dr. Reddy's and Cipla also closed with gains.

Bajaj advanced nearly 4% (Rs 37) to Rs 1,043. Maruti was up 2.6% (Rs 11) at Rs 447. Tata Motors was also up more than 2% (Rs 11) at Rs 492.

While Wipro gained 4% (Rs 25) to Rs 700, Satyam was up 1.6% (Rs 6) at Rs 398.

Tata Power jumped over 7% (Rs 26) to Rs 377. L&T added nearly 6% (Rs 53) to Rs 963. Reliance Energy advanced 4% (Rs 19) to Rs 519. Bharti gained nearly 5% (Rs 10) to Rs 220. HPCL moved up 4% (Rs 13) to Rs 350.

HDFC, Hero Honda and Zee declined today.

Gillette India touched a high of Rs 709 in early morning deals after the announcement of the takeover of the parent company by P&G. The stock finally finished with a sharp gain of 7% (Rs 45) at Rs 675. The counter saw a huge spurt in traded volume to 15,699 shares as against the 2-week average of 651 shares.

P&G moved up 5% (Rs 28) to Rs 614 with a volume of over 16,700 shares as against the 2-week average of 4,079 shares.