Sensex zooms past 10,500; ACC soars 9%

The Budget may be over, but the bulls are in no mood to relent.

Mirroring the weakness in the global markets, the Sensex opened flat at 10,369, and then slipped to a low of 10,344. However, buying emerged soon and the index moved back into positive zone.

The rally gained momentum as buying spread to all sectors. Frenzied buying towards the close saw the index zoom past the 10,500-mark to touch a new, all-time intra-day high of 10,573 - up 2.2% (229 points) from the day's low.

The Sensex finally settled with a huge gain of 1.9% (195 points) at a record 10,565.

The BSE Consumer Durables Index surged over 4% to 3,200, and the Auto Index rallied 3.6% to 5177. The Teck and Metal indices zoomed 2.7% each to 2519 and 7430, respectively.

While the Midcap Index rallied 1.5% to 4860, the Smallcap Index was up 1.3% at 6223.

The market breadth was marginally positive. Out of 2,570 stocks traded, 1,325 moved up, 1,162 slipped and 83 ended unchanged today.

ACC soared to a high of Rs 700, and finally finished with a gain of nearly 9% at Rs 683. Grasim added 4.4% to Rs 1,819, and Gujarat Ambuja spurted nearly 3% to Rs 90.75.

Maruti zoomed 7.5% to Rs 885. Bajaj Auto rallied 4.4% to Rs 2,715, and Tata Motors gained nearly 4% at Rs 846. Hero Honda was up 1% at Rs 896.

BHEL surged 5% to Rs 2,128. Bharti Tele rallied 4.5% to Rs 378. Larsen & Toubro moved up 2.9% to Rs 2,466. HLL gained 1.2% to Rs 245.

Satyam advanced 4.2% to Rs 801. Infosys and TCS added 2.7% each to Rs 2,906 and Rs 1,740, respectively. Wipro ended with a gain of 1.5% at Rs 528.

Hindalco gained nearly 4% at Rs 159. Tata Steel spurted 2.7% to Rs 442.

Tata Power was up 2.2% at Rs 522, and NTPC finished with a gain of 1.5% at Rs 133.

Ranbaxy and Dr.Reddy's rallied over 1.5% each to Rs 436 and Rs 1,323, respectively.

ONGC - down 1.3% at Rs 1,122 - was the only notable loser among the Sensex stocks today.

While 247 stocks hit their upper limits, 162 hit lower limits today.

Reliance Natural Resources (RNRL) began trading at Rs 17.50, which also turned out to be the day's low for the scrip. The stock zoomed to a high of Rs 26 before tumbling and settling at Rs 18.55 on Day 1.

Areva zoomed over 14% to Rs 580. Educomp Solutions, Century Textiles, Goodricke, Harrison Malyalam, Shree Cement, JK Cement, Polaris, India Cement, Birla Corp and BEML finished with whopping gains of 9-13% each.

Jayant Agro plunged 10% to Rs 190. Indo Rama Synthetics, Jindal Photo, Rain Calcining, Classic Diamond, Assam Company, Torrent Pharma and Canara Bank were the other prominent losers today.

Debutant Sadbhav Engineering topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 422.78 crore followed by Maruti (Rs 213.05 crore), Tata Motors (Rs 131.94 crore), Satyam (Rs 123.37 crore) and ACC (Rs 101.98 crore).

Newly listed RNRL led the volume chart with trades of around 2.34 crore shares followed by Debutant Sadbhav (1.52 crore), IDFC (1.40 crore), SAIL (38.55 lakh) and India Cement (38.34 lakh).