Sensex ends buoyant above 14600

The market was back on track after slipping yesterday. Lack of buying support in early trades pushed the index into a range-bound mode. The market gained momentum in the afternoon and rallied sharply touching a new high. Ignoring the weakness in the Asian markets, the Sensex began the trading session 16 points higher at 14494 and advanced further after some range-bound moves. Hectic buying towards the close saw the index touch an all-time high of 14663 and close with gains of 165 points at 14643, while the Nifty closed with gains of 28 points at 4224.

The breadth of the market was neutral. Of the 2,725 stocks traded on the BSE 1,327 stocks advanced, 1,358 stocks declined and 40 stocks ended unchanged. Among the sectoral indices the BSE IT index notched up gains of 2.19% at 5524 followed by the BSE Metal index (up 1.54% at 9426), the BSE Auto index (up 1.48% at 5809), the BSE Teck index (up 1.45% at 3949) and the BSE Bankex (up 1.35% at 7527).

The heavyweights witnessed strong buying interest. In the auto space Bajaj Auto soared 9.02% at Rs3,080 and Punjab Tractors surged 8.71% at Rs308. Among the other gainers Hindalco surged 4.36% at Rs182, Infosys jumped 3.82% at Rs2,359, Grasim added 2.93% at Rs2,875, ICICI Bank gained 2.61% at Rs982, L&T advanced 2.54% at Rs1,744 and Cipla was up 2.50% at Rs256. On the other hand Tata Motors fell 2.03% at Rs902 and ONGC declined 1.83% at Rs891. Gujarat Ambuja, HLL, Reliance Communication, Dr Reddy's and Ranbaxy closed with marginal losses.

Over 39.14 lakh SAIL shares changed hands on the BSE followed by IndusInd Bank (33.42 lakh shares), Hindalco (22.46 lakh shares), IDBI (20.53 lakh shares) and IDFC (17.98 lakh shares).

Value-wise Bajaj Auto registered a turnover of Rs112 crore on the BSE followed by Infosys (Rs76 crore), Reliance Energy (Rs67 crore), Bharat Electronics (Rs64 crore) and Reliance Industries (Rs62 crore).