Market remains buoyant

The northbound trend continued in the Sensex for the third consecutive session with the index registering smart gains on buying in heavyweight and sectoral stocks. The Sensex began the trading session with gains of 59 points at 13546 and rallied past 13650 to touch an intra-day high of 13670 in early trades. The Sensex came close to testing 12700 towards the close, but ended the session with gains of 127 points at 13615. The Nifty gained 46 points to close at 3889.

The breadth of the market was positive. Of the 2,615 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,546 stocks advanced, 993 stocks declined and 76 stocks ended unchanged. On the sectoral indices front, the BSE Metal index surged 3.94% at 8803 followed by the BSE CD index (up 1.96% at 3403) and the BSE Bankex (up 1.38% at 6995). However, the BSE FMCG index and the BSE Oil & Gas index inched lower.

Among the gainers Tata Steel advanced 5.36% at Rs459, Reliance Communications surged 4.31% at Rs467, Hindalco added 3.73% at Rs178, SBI advanced 3.39% at Rs1,264, Grasim Industries gained 2.93% at Rs2,741, ACC jumped 2.63% at Rs1,059 and Satyam Computers was up 2.07% at Rs477. However, NTPC dropped 1.68% at Rs143, ITC lost 1.36% at Rs175 and Wipro declined 1.06% at Rs564. Cipla, Reliance Industries, Bajaj Auto and Dr Reddy’s closed with marginal losses.

Several metal stocks attracted strong buying support. Jindal Steel & Power soared 6.86% at Rs2,167, JSW Steel advanced 5.58% at Rs339, Tata Steel surged 5.36% at Rs459 and SAIL gained 3.76% at Rs83. NALCO, Jindal Stainless Steel, Ispat Industries, and Hindustan Zinc gained 1-3% each.

Over 48.32 lakh Zee Telefilms shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Hindalco Industries (38.30 lakh shares), Reliance Communications (30.70 lakh shares), Tata Steel (27.42 lakh shares) and Sterling Biotech (23.56 lakh shares).

Value-wise Suzlon Energy registered a turnover of Rs259 crore on the BSE followed by Zee Telefilms (Rs167 crore), Reliance Communications (Rs142 crore), Tata Steel (Rs124 crore) and Reliance Industries (Rs105 crore).