Sensex marches on, ends 156 pts up at 18,814

Sensex 18814 (156)
Nifty 5525 (84)

It was a weak outing for IT stocks as quarterly numbers of sector bellwether Infosys Technologies fell short of market expectations. The surging rupee dented the company's revenues to a marked extent. Though the company revised upward its guidance for fiscal 2008, market participants appeared least inclined to build up positions in IT stocks today. On the contrary, they kept selling at these counters almost right through the session.

The broad market, notwithstanding some sharp gains posted by select old economy stocks, struggled to make a headway till about an hour past noon. However, led by capital goods stocks, auto, bank, pharma, FMCG, realty and metal stocks rallied higher in afternoon trade.
The Sensex, which had slipped into the red to 18,536.97 after hitting a high of 18,779.68 in morning trade, spurted smartly and zoomed past 18,800 to a new lifetime high at 18,832.65 during the final hour of the session. It finally settled at 18,814.07, netting a handsome gain of 155.82 points or 0.84%.

On the National Stock Exchange, the 50 stock Nifty index, which hit a new high at 5532.75, ended at 5524.85 with a sharp gain of 1.53% or 83.40 points.
Mahindra & Mahindra, which turned in a sparkling display today, moved up by as much as 7.65%. ONGC surged 5.7% to Rs 1066.45. Grasim Industries recorded a strong gain of 4.15%. BHEL, ACC, Larsen & Toubro, Hindalco, Tata Motors and ITC gained 3% - 4%.

HDFC Bank ended with a gain of around 2.6%. ICICI Bank and State Bank of India closed higher by 2% and 1.1% respectively. Telecom stocks Reliance Communications (2.35%) and Bharti Airtel (2.25%) gained smart ground.

Infosys Technologies eased by around 6.95% to Rs 1976. Satyam Computer Services lost 7.5% as it settled at Rs 447.95. Tata Consultancy Services (down 4.7%) and Wipro (down 2.95%) also closed on a weak note.

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