Heavyweights vault, lift Sensex up by 894 pts at close

Sensex up by 894 pts at close

NSE
5937.90 242.50
BSE
19929.06 893.58

The bulls, after staging a telling comeback yesterday afternoon, stormed the bourses once again and stamped their supremacy in style today. The resultant surge in prices of blue chip stocks proved so sharp that the benchmark BSE index Sensex, which opened with a positive gap of a little over 300 points, very nearly breached the 20,000 mark this afternoon.

Though it fell short of the coveted figure by a whisker - it hit a high of 19,987.71 in late afternoon trade - the barometer still recorded its biggest ever single day gain (in absolute terms) today. While the Sensex ended the session with a massive gain of 893.58 points or 4.69% at 19,929.06, the National Stock Exchange's 50 stock Nifty index zoomed 4.26% or 242.50 points to 5937.90. It hit a high of 5950.20 this afternoon.

The smart recovery in global markets, the decision of Left parties to soften their stand on the Indo-US nuclear pact and reports from SEBI that a number of prominent overseas investors have been applying for licences to enter the market as FIIs were among the significant factors that triggered a buying spree today.

Barring consumer durables stocks, which remained rather subdued, stocks from all other sectors were seen moving higher and higher as the session progressed today. Mirroring the splendid rise in prices of bank and oil stocks, the Bankex and Oil & Gas indices spurted 6.53% and 6.4% over their previous closing levels.

IT stocks, led by bellwether Infosys Technologies, bounced back from recent losses and posted handsome gains. The BSE IT and Teck indices climbed up 4.51% and 3.83% respectivey. The Metal index surged 4.16%. The Auto, Capital Goods, Power, Realty and PSU indices advanced by 2% - 4% while the FMCG and Healthcare indices firmed up by 1.53% and 1.64% respectively.
HDFC Bank (up 10.85%) was the biggest gainer from the Sensex pack. ICICI Bank closed with a gain of 8.65%. Reliance Industries flared up by 7.15%. Hindalco gained nearly 7%. Wipro, which was a bit sedate to start with, ended with a strong gain of 6.85%.

HDFC ended with a gain of over 6.5%. Satyam Computer Services (4.95%), Infosys Technologies (4.85%), ONGC (4.4%), Reliance Energy (3.6%), Tata Consultancy Services (3.6%), BHEL (3.5%), Maruti Suzuki (3.5%), Bharti Airtel (3.2%), Grasim Industries (3.2%) and Tata Steel (3%) ended with big gains.

Larsen & Toubro shed some points on profit taking, but still ended the day with a handsome gain of 2.85%. ITC (2.75%), Reliance Communications (2.45%), State Bank of India (2.2%), Tata Motors (2.1%), NTPC (1.85%), ACC (1.6%) and Mahindra & Mahindra (1.05%) also ended on a firm note. Ranbaxy Laboratories, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, Cipla, Ambuja Cements, Bajaj Auto and Hindustan Unilever ended marginally higher than their previous closing levels.

Nalco, which shot up by 13.75%, was the biggest gainer from the Nifty index. Punjab National Bank, VSNL, Siemens, Sun Pharmaceuticals and SAIL gained 6% - 10%. MTNL, Tata Power, Sterlite Industries, Zee Entertainment, Unitech, HCL Technologies, GAIL India, GlaxoSmithKline Pharma, ABB, Suzlon Energy and Hero Honda also closed with impressive gains.

Besides large cap stocks, a number of midcap and smallcap stocks also rallied to higher levels and mirroring widespread buying, the market breadth remained quite strong today. When trade ended, out of a total of 2849 stocks seen in action on BSE, as many as 2025 stocks were up in the positive territory. 763 stocks closed with losses and 61 stocks ended at their previous closing levels.


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