Market ends upbeat, gains 282 points

The market appears to be back on track after slipping for the last two sessions. The market had fallen prey to the weak global indices in the past few sessions and had witnessed a major correction. The Sensex bounced in early trades on the back of the revival of buying triggered by firm Asian markets. The Sensex was up over 300 points amid strong optimism in the morning. However the bourses slipped in mid-morning trades amid considerable volatility and the Sensex shed most of its early gains to touch the day's low of 12427. The market inched up from lower levels on sustained buying in information technology, telecom and front-line stocks to touch the day's high of 12760. The Sensex closed with gains of 282 points at 12697. The Nifty added 79 points to close at 3656.

However, the breadth of the market was negative. Of the 2,578 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,451 stocks declined, 1,089 stocks advanced and 38 stocks ended unchanged. Among the sectoral indices the BSE IT Index advanced 4.90% at 4962 followed by the BSE Teck Index (up 4.07% at 3488), the BSE Oil & Gas Index (up 2.21% at 6067) and the BSE Bankex (up 2.13% at 6353). However, the BSE FMCG Index and the BSE Metal Index closed in negative territory.

Select blue chip stocks notched up significant gains. Wipro soared 8.12% at Rs581, Infosys advanced 5.47% at Rs2,116, ACC climbed 5.07% at Rs854, Satyam Computers surged 4.92% at Rs434, Bharti Airtel gained 3.98% at Rs718, ICICI Bank added 3.77% at Rs852, Reliance Industries jumped 3.19% at Rs1,229, TCS advanced 3.17% at Rs1,199, L&T gained 3.17% at Rs1,428 and SBI was up 3% at Rs991. Among the laggards Hindalco tumbled 3.02% at Rs130, NTPC dropped 2.74% at Rs133 and Hero Honda lost 2.57% at Rs667. Tata Motors, ONGC, HLL, ITC and Tata Steel ended with marginal losses.

The techs were in the limelight. Mphasis soared 5.12% at Rs258, Patni Computers jumped 2.66% at Rs415, HCL Technologies added 2.53% at Rs625, Financial Technologies advanced 1.84% at Rs1,741 and i-Flex solutions ended with moderate gains.

Over 59.87 lakh SAIL shares changed hands on the BSE followed by IDFC (51.85 lakh shares), Reliance Communications (42.50 lakh shares), Gujarat Ambuja Cement (41.32 lakh shares) and NTPC (38.48 lakh shares).

Value-wise Reliance Industries registered a turnover of Rs151 crore on the BSE followed by Reliance Communications (Rs127 crore), Infosys (Rs97 crore), Century Textile (Rs68 crore) and Tata Steel (Rs68 crore).