Smokestacks shimmer

Stocks Report

 Gains were seen almost across the board among old economy counters like automobiles, power, steel, cement and auto ancillary.

 Heavyweights ITC, Reliance Industries and State Bank of India contributed to the overall gains.

 ITC was up 3.86 per cent to close at Rs 840.20, Reliance Industries was up 2.12 per cent at Rs 458.10, State Bank of India was up 2.01 per cent at Rs 464.80 and Hindustan Lever was up 0.52 per cent at Rs 191.60.

 Balmer Lawrie was up 13.13 per cent at Rs 112.85 and Engineers India was up 11.37 per cent at Rs 381.45. Indian Oil was up 3.24 per cent at Rs 398.54. BPCL was up 5 per cent at Rs 382.50.

 HPCL was down 2.22 per cent to close at Rs 352.20. More than 19 lakh HPCL shares were traded on BSE today.

 Hero Honda Motors was up 2.41 per cent to close at Rs 331.95 and Bajaj Auto was up 2.38 per cent at Rs 857.95.

 Reliance Energy was up 6.95 per cent to close at Rs 408.65 and Bhel was up 4.06 per cent at Rs 420.30.

 Cement pivotals L&T was up 2.65 per cent to close at Rs 348.85, Grasim up by 2.61 per cent at Rs 680.05, ACC was up 1.98 per cent at Rs 210.85 and Gujarat Ambuja Cements was up 0.30 per cent at Rs 233.25.

 Elsewhere, old economy pivotals HDFC was up 5.35 per cent to close at Rs 549.70, Tata Steel was up 3.58 per cent at Rs 291.85, Castrol India was up 2.98 per cent at Rs 195.40, ICICI Bank was up 1.17 per cent at Rs 212, Hindalco was up 0.86 per cent at Rs 984.50.

 Tech stocks saw selective action. HCL Tech was up 4.15 per cent to close at Rs 185.60.

 Infosys Tech was up 0.15 per cent at Rs 4,560.95 and Satyam Computer was up 0.04 per cent at Rs 257.95.