Market closes on a positive note

After witnessing range-bound moves through the day, the market settled in positive territory. The Sensex, which touched an intra-day high of 14479, finally ended the trading session with gains of 47 points at 14403. The Nifty gained 18 points to close at 4165.

The breadth of the market was marginally positive. Of the 2,674 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,326 stocks advanced, 1,297 stocks declined and 54 stocks ended unchanged. The BSE Bankex led the sectoral indices chart with gains of 1.48% followed by the BSE Oil & Gas index (up 0.42%). The BSE IT index and the BSE CG index also closed in positive territory. However, the BSE CD index shed 1.49%, the BSE Auto index lost 0.26% and the BSE FMCG index ended marginally in negative territory.

Leading the rally, ICICI Bank surged 3.11% at Rs978. Maruti Udyog gained 2.47% at Rs914, TCS added 1.52% at Rs1,310, Reliance Industries advanced 0.81% at Rs1,418 and Bharti was up 0.74% at Rs798. Among the other gainers CESC surged 7.17 at Rs367, Tata Elxsi soared 5.63% at Rs294, SAIL advanced 5.11% at Rs119 and GIPCL and Ispat Industries rose 4% each at Rs62 & Rs15 respectively. SKF India, Essel Propack, Corporation Bank, Siemens and ABB advanced 3% each.

Banking stocks had a good run on the bourses. Oriental Bank of Commerce vaulted 2.99% at Rs229, Federal Bank gained 1.69% at Rs240, Kotak Bank added 1.48% at Rs490, Canara Bank advanced 1.04% at Rs219 and SBI was up 0.67% at Rs1,131. However, Allahabad Bank declined 2.69% at Rs83 and Bank of Baroda dropped 2.13% at Rs227.

ZEE News was the most actively traded counter on the BSE with trades of over 2 crore shares followed by IFCI (1.02 crore shares), Redington (92.27 lakh shares), Pochiraju (76.56 lakh shares) and Cinemax (73.95 lakh shares).