Sensex ends 460 pts up as heavyweights post strong gains

Sensex ends 460 pts up as heavyweights post strong gains

The market opened on a high note this morning, shrugged off an early setback and gained in strength as the session progressed thanks to frenzied buying, mostly on short-covering, in several blue chip stocks. If the firm trend in US and Asian markets triggered a positive start, it was the market regulator SEBI's warning to foreign funds against overseas lending and borrowing of Indian stocks for going short in Indian markets that resulted in some hectic buying activity in afternoon trade.


The Apex bank had cut repo rate by 100 basis points yesterday afternoon and the move raised hopes of lower lending rates and buoyed up realty, capital goods, auto and consumer durables stocks today. Corporate results reported today turned out to be fairly good and this also had a positive impact on the sentiment.

The Sensex, which opened with a positive gap of over 200 points at 10,428.11 and raced to a high of 10,750.20 in afternoon trade, ended at 10,683.39 with a handsome gain of 460.30 points or 4.5%. The Nifty settled at 3234.90, around 20 points down from the day's high of 3254.85, with a gain of 112.10 points or 3.59%. The Sensex and Nifty had tumbled to 10,250.23 and 3117.35 respectively in early trade this morning.


BSE CD, the consumer durables index, was the biggest gainer today. It ended the day stronger by nearly 9%. The Realty barometer advanced by 8.32%. The Capital Goods index gained 5.48%.

Besides realty and capital goods stocks, information technology stocks were among the star performers today. BSE IT and Teck closed higher by 6.03% and 4.66% respectively.
Power, oil, metal and FMCG stocks recorded handsome gains. Mirroring their surge, the respective sectoral indices moved up by 3% - 4.5% today. The Bankex closed 2.57% up. PSU stocks bounced back after a setback and pharma stocks edged higher after remaining quite subdued in morning trade. BSE HC and PSU ended up by 1.33% and 1.04% respectively. The Auto index closed with a gain of 1.65%.

Hectic buying was seen at several counters in midcap and smallcap segments as well. While the midcap index advanced by 2.31%, the smallcap index gained a little over 2% today.
The market breadth was positive. Out of 2651 stocks traded on BSE, 1613 stocks closed with gains. 975 stocks posted losses and 63 stocks ended flat.

Among Sensex stocks, only Mahindra & Mahindra (down 2.1%) and Hindalco (down 1.65%) failed to make it to the positive territory today. From the Nifty index, Idea Cellular (down 12.8%) suffered a sharp loss due to weak quarterly results. Sun Pharmaceuticals lost a little over 4%. SAIL ended lower by 2.3%. Cipla lost 1.6% and BPCL, the other loser, eased by 0.7%.
Jaiprakash Associates (up 16.25% to Rs 78.70) spurted on strong quarterly results. Tata Consultancy Services rallied sharply in afternoon trade and finished with a sparkling gain of 12.85%. Reliance Communications vaulted 11.25%. Tata Steel recorded a hefty gain of 10.2%.
Satyam Computer Services (9.85%), Tata Power (9.6%), Sterlite Industries (8.6%), Larsen & Toubro (6.15%) and ACC (6.05%) closed on a high note.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries posted a smart gain of 5.75%. Wipro firmed up by 5.65%. HDFC, Hindustan Unilever, DLF and Reliance Infrastructure gained 5% - 5.25%.
ICICI Bank and BHEL ended stronger by 4.9% and 4.4% respectively. Infosys Technologies (3.9%) and State Bank of India (3.85%) also finished with impressive gains. Maruti Suzuki, Bharti Airtel, ITC, Tata Motors, Grasim Industries and ONGC moved up by 1% - 3%. HDFC Bank, Ranbaxy Laboratories and NTPC closed with marginal gains.

Siemens, Suzlon Energy, HCL Technologies, Unitech, Reliance Petroleum and Cairn India gained 5.5% - 8.5% today. Reliance Power, ABB, Zee Entertainment and Hero Honda also closed with sharp gains.

Indiabulls Real Estate flared up by 27.65% to Rs 136.90 today. Educomp Solutions shot up by nearly 24%. IDFC vaulted 20.85%. HDIL recorded a hefty gain of 19.15%. Titan Industries (17.4%) spurted on strong results. Praj Industries, Divi's Laboratories, India Infoline, Tech Mahindra, Chambal Fertilizers, BGR Energy, Oracle Financial Services, Asian Paints and Nagarjuna Construction Company also rallied sharply and ended stronger by 9%-14% today.
Ruchi Soya, MindTree, Century Plywoods, Prism Cements, EID Parry, Mahindra Lifespace, Core Projects, State Trading Corporation, Kansai Nero, Jai Balaji Industries, PVP Ventures, Penland and Nava Bharat Ventures were some of the big gainers from the midcap index.

Source:Sify.com