Sensex rallies past 14500

The market witnessed strong all-round buying during the day. However in early trades after a positive opening gap of 28 points the Sensex slipped on selling in front-line stocks and touched an intra-day low of 14372. The subsequent strong buying in auto, consumer durables and oil stocks lifted the Sensex above the 14500 mark to an all-time high at 14527. The Sensex ended the session at 14516, up 112 points, while the Nifty closed at 4216 with gains of 32 points.

The breadth of the market was positive. Of the 2,724 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,537 stocks advanced, 1,138 stocks declined and 49 stocks ended unchanged. Among the sectoral indices the BSE Auto index advanced 2.05% at 5713 followed by the BSE CD index (up 1.53% at 4029) and the BSE CG index (up 0.99% at 9921). However, the BSE Metal index and the BSE IT index closed in negative territory.

Select blue chips notched up substantial gains. During the day mobile service providers were in the limelight on TRAI's decision to lower port charges by up to 29%. Bharti Airtel hit an all-time high of Rs797 and closed with gains of 1.32% at Rs781. Reliance Communications surged 5% to Rs515.

Among the Sensex gainers HDFC surged 4.22% at Rs1,817, Reliance Energy advanced 2.70% at Rs549, Maruti Udyog climbed 1.97% at Rs963, Hero Honda added 1.96% at Rs730, Bajaj Auto gained 1.71% at Rs2,825, Tata Steel added 1.50% at Rs470, SBI jumped 1.31% at Rs1,197 and Reliance Industries was up 1.14% at Rs1,388. Among the laggards Hindalco tumbled 2.73% at Rs178 and Wipro slipped 1.35% at Rs635. Cipla, Grasim, NTPC, Satyam Computers ended with marginal losses.

Among the metal shares Sterlite Industries tumbled 6.27% at Rs487, Hindustan Zinc slipped 5.52% at Rs655, SAIL lost 1.76% at Rs111, JSW Steel fell 1.63% at Rs455 and Jindal Stainless shed 1.03% at Rs125.

Over 40.06 lakh IDBI shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Reliance Communications (33.35 lakh shares), IDFC (29.14 lakh shares), SAIL (21.55 lakh shares) and Balaji Telefilms (19.57 lakh shares).

Value-wise Reliance Communication registered a turnover of Rs169 crore on the BSE followed by Reliance Capital (Rs66 crore), Tata Steel (Rs58 crore), SBI (Rs58 crore) and Reliance Industries (Rs43 crore).