Heavyweights lift Sensex above 13000

The Sensex started the trading session on a firm note at 12650 and maintained an upward bias throughout the day. A strong bout of buying in heavyweight, metal, banking and capital goods stocks saw the Sensex surge past the 13000 mark and touch an intra-day high of 13100. The Sensex ended the day with gains of 470 points at 13049 while the Nifty surged 135 points to close at 3762.

The breadth of the market was extremely positive. Of the 2,580 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,752 stocks advanced, 771 stocks declined and 57 stocks ended unchanged. Among the sectoral indices, the BSE Metal Index surged 4.58% followed by the BSE Consumer Goods Index (up 4.51%), the BSE Bankex (up 4.45%), the BSE HC Index (up 3.76%), the BSE PSU Index (up 3.46%), the BSE Teck Index (up 3.46%), the BSE CD Index (up 3.32%) and the BSE FMCG Index (up 3.18%). The other indices were up 2% each.

All the Sensex stocks ended at higher levels. HLL was the day's star performer and shot up by 9.54% at Rs184. Among the other gainers Jaiprakash surged 13.02% at Rs576, SAIL vaulted 12.99% at Rs105, Century Textiles spurted 12.17% at Rs500, IPCL jumped 12.15% at Rs260, Hinduja TMT soared 11.30% at Rs517, CESC advanced 10.98% at Rs332, India Cements added 9.66% at Rs167 and Reliance Capital rose 8.90% at Rs635. Among the laggards HCL Infosys slumped 4.86% at Rs136, JB Chemicals dropped 3.87% at Rs77 and Ramco Systems slipped 2.47% at Rs130.

Metal stocks sparkled on the back of firm overseas commodity markets. SAIL vaulted 12.99% at Rs105, Nav Bharat Venture soared 12.94% at Rs96, Adhunik Metals zoomed 9.38% at Rs35, JSW Stainless advanced 8.02% at Rs446, Sterlite Industries gained 6.54% at Rs468 and Sunflag Iron & Steel added 6.12% at Rs13. Hindustan Zinc, Lanco Industries and Binani Industries gained 5% each.

Over 2 crore IFCI shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Indus Fila (1.22 crore shares), Broadcast (69.68 lakh shares), Tata Teleservices (55.39 lakh shares) and Evinix (54.99 lakh shares).

Value-wise Reliance Industries registered a turnover of Rs199 crore on the BSE followed by IPCL (Rs91.64 crore), SBI (Rs83.64 crore), Reliance Communications (Rs82.14 crore) and Tata Steel (Rs81.55 crore).