Sensex zooms 76pts; REL gains 7%

A solid start to 2005...

The Sensex opened with a huge positive gap of 23 points at 6,626, which also turned out to be the low for the day. Sustained across-the-board buying saw the index zoom to a high of 6,685 - an intra-day gain of 82 points.

The Sensex finally finished Day 1 of the new year with a solid gain of  76 points (1.16%) at 6,679.

While 28 index scrips advanced with a volume of 1.19 crore totalling Rs 612 crore, two declined with a volume of two lakh for Rs 19 crore.

Heavyweights finished with gains today. Infosys moved up more than a per cent (Rs 28) to Rs 2,117. Reliance was up Rs 9 at Rs 543. ITC was up Rs 3 at Rs 1,313, and HLL was up a rupee at Rs 144. ONGC moved up 1.3% (Rs 11) to Rs 830, and SBI was up Rs 3 at Rs 656. 

Auto stocks rallied sharply on good December numbers. Hero Honda advanced more than 5% (Rs 29) to Rs 600. Tata Motors gained nearly 3% (Rs 15) to Rs 520. Maruti was up Rs 8 at Rs 469, and Bajaj moved up Rs 11 to Rs 1,143.

Power scrips surged on fresh buying interest. Reliance Energy zoomed over 7% (Rs 37) to Rs 562. BHEL gained more than 3% (Rs 25) to Rs 795. Tata Power was up 2% (Rs 7) at Rs 398.

Gujarat Ambuja was up Rs 6 at Rs 408. ACC and Grasim also closed with gains.

Bharti advanced nearly 6% (Rs 12) to Rs 228. HPCL was up Rs 7 at Rs 408. Hindalco, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Wipro, Satyam, Dr. Reddy's and Zee also finished with gains.