Sensex ends on a buoyant note

After being battered in the last two trading sessions, the market witnessed a smart bounce back amid considerable volatility. The Sensex opened with a negative gap of 26 points and continued to slip in early trades. However a sharp bout of buying interest saw it bounce and touch a high of 13441. The Sensex finally wound up the session with gains of 45 points at 13385 while the Nifty advanced 18 points to close at 3834. The breadth of the market was positive. Of the 2,604 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,424 stocks advanced, 1,119 stocks declined and 61 stocks ended unchanged.

The BSE Auto index was the major gainer among the sectoral indices and was up 1.85%. The BSE CD index and the BSE Metal index were up nearly 1% each. However the BSE Bankex, the BSE CG index, the BSE IT index and the BSE PSU index ended on a weak note.

Among the prominent index gainers Tata Motors surged 3.48% at Rs865, Reliance Communication soared 3.16% at Rs462, Reliance Energy jumped 1.99% at Rs524, Bajaj Auto added 1.98% at Rs2,559, Satyam Computers was up 1.61% at Rs466, HDFC added 1.43% at Rs1,594, Cipla gained 1.31% at Rs247 and Reliance Industries was up 1.02% at Rs1,261. On the other hand Gujarat Ambuja Cements shed 1.04% at Rs133. Tata Steel, HDFC Bank, L&T and Ranbaxy were down with marginal losses.

Among the auto and auto ancillary stocks Amtek Auto and Mahindra & Mahindra gained 4% each. Escorts, Asahi India, Punjab Tractor, Bharat Forge and Sundaram Fasteners were up 1% each.

Mahindra & Mahindra at Rs866.95, Garware Offshore at Rs280.90, Simplex Trading at Rs88.60, Texmaco at Rs1,149.05, Millars at Rs124 and IST at Rs342.20 touched new all-time highs on the BSE.

Over 73.38 lakh Sobha Developers shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Reliance Communication (26.50 lakh shares), Reliance Petro (22.70 lakh shares) and Polaris (18.87 lakh shares).

Value-wise Sobha Developers clocked a turnover of Rs187 crore followed by Reliance Communication (103 crore) Reliance Industries (Rs93 crore), SBI (Rs73 crore) and Century Textiles (Rs61 crore).