Sensex zooms on results

Index climbs 192 points to close just shy of 13,000.

The bulls had another field day on Dalal Street, taking the Sensex close to the 13,000 mark on Monday.

The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark index closed at 12,928, after touching an intra-day high of 12,953.76, adding 192 points. The broad-based S&P CNX Nifty rose 48 points to close at 3,724, but remained 30 points away from its peak of 3,754.25 reached on May 10.

"The index could touch 14,000 by March 2007. On the downside, there will be resistance at 11,500," said Nimesh Kampani of JM Financial Services.

The market capitalisation now stands at Rs 33,30,362.70 crore, Rs 1,40,763 crore away from the all-time high of Rs 34,71,125 crore of May 10.

Impressive corporate results, good industrial output numbers, strong currents across global equity markets and lower oil prices contributed to the rally, led by front-line infotech, banking, consumer durables and fast-moving consumer goods stocks.

Mid- and small-caps, which have been moving slowly, maintained their lacklustre journey, with the BSE Mid-Cap Index rising by a mere 0.15 per cent to 5,288.30 points, far away from its lifetime high of 6,033.30 while the BSE Small-Cap Index ended in the red with a loss of 18.88 points.

"Across the globe, the markets did well on Monday. The broader-based Nifty has the weight of stocks like ONGC, which, owing to the cooling off of global oil price, is trading low. Hence, the Nifty has not made big gains like the Sensex," said Nischal Maheshwari of Edelweiss Capital.

Index heavyweights like Reliance Industries, Satyam Computer, ITC and HDFC Bank were the major gainers among the 30 Sensex scrips. HDFC Bank was the top gainer with a 5.85 per cent rise to Rs 1,046.55, followed by Hindalco (up 4.02 per cent to Rs 182.25), ICICI Bank (3.55 per cent to Rs 719.90), L&T (3.07 per cent to Rs 1,306.25) and ITC (2.72 per cent to Rs 194.15).

Except for the automobile index, all BSE sectoral indices ended in the black. The Bankex rose 2.50 per cent, followed by the Consumer Durables Index (up 1.87 per cent) and the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods Index (up 1.68 per cent).

Among technology stocks, Satyam Computer advanced 2.1 per cent to Rs 436, TCS 2.7 per cent to Rs 1,134, Wipro 2.55 to Rs 571 and Mastek 2.3 per cent to Rs 361.