Banking, CG stocks propel Sensex to new high

Fresh optimism in heavyweight, banking, capital goods and oil & gas stocks triggered a major rally in the afternoon that lifted the Sensex to a new intra-day high of 13304.
The Sensex began the trading session with a positive gap of 50 points at 13188, but declined on selling pressure to touch an intra-day low of 13105. However the market
gained momentum in the afternoon and bounced from lower levels as the sentiment turned extremely bullish on healthy buying in heavyweight, banking, capital goods and oil & gas stocks that lifted the index to a new intra-day high of 13304. The Sensex ended the session with gains of 145 points at 13283, while the Nifty added 38 points to close at 3835.

The breadth of the market was positive. Of the 2,583 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,261 stocks advanced, 1,227 stocks declined and 95 stocks ended unchanged. On the sectoral front, the BSE Bankex surged 2.43% at 6737 followed by the BSE CG index (up 1.53% at 8831), the BSE Oil & Gas index (up 1.25% at 6264) and the BSE CD index (up 1% at 3264).

Among the major gainers ICICI Bank soared 4.08% at Rs832, BHEL surged 3.03% at Rs2,456, HDFC Bank jumped 2.65% at Rs1,044, Gujarat Ambuja Cements advanced 2.63% at Rs135, L&T rose 2.02% at Rs1,337 and Dr Reddy's was up 2.02% at Rs789. Reliance Industries, Tata Motors, ACC, Hero Honda and REL gained 1.5-2% each. However, Cipla shed 1.22% at Rs268. Satyam was down 0.89% at Rs424, ITC slipped 0.56% at Rs186 and HDFC closed weaker by 0.54% at Rs1,495. Maruti, Bajaj Auto and Ranbaxy closed with marginal losses.

Over 2.13 crore Silverline Technologies shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Pentamedia Graphics (1.18 crore shares), Vishal Exports (79.10 lakh shares), Development Credit Bank (49.82 lakh shares) and GTL Infrastructure (47.99 lakh shares).

Value-wise Reliance Industries registered a turnover of Rs338.59 crore on the BSE followed by Indiabulls (Rs166.02 crore), Tech Mahindra (Rs106.92 crore), HDFC (Rs78.57 crore) and Hindustan Zinc (Rs67.09 crore).