Market rallies past 13300

The market extended its winning streak for the fourth consecutive session. The Sensex has gained nearly 878 points in the last four sessions. The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 126 points and regained the 13000 mark. The index climbed over 300 points in early trades on buying across sectors and heavy short covering in the derivatives segment triggered by firm Asian markets. The US Federal Reserve’s decision not to change the interest rates was another factor that kept the market firm. The market remained buoyant amid range-bound moves in the afternoon. Sustained buying in banking, capital goods and auto stocks lifted the Sensex to an intra-day high of 13326 towards the close. The Sensex finally ended the session with gains of 362 points at 13308. The Nifty gained 111 points and closed at 3876.

The breadth of the market was positive. Of the 2,669 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,649 stocks advanced, 937 stocks declined and 83 stocks ended unchanged. Among the sectoral indices the BSE Bankex notched up gains of 4.22% at 6822 followed by the BSE CG Index (up 3.90% at 8986), the BSE PSU Index (up 3.08% at 5909) and the BSE Auto Index (up 3.02% at 5042).

Barring a few counters, most of the heavyweights ended at higher levels. In the banking space Bank of India soared 12.66% at Rs177, Canara Bank rose 8.08% at Rs208 and Punjab National Bank was up 6.91% at Rs483. Among the Sensex gainers BHEL surged 6.04% at Rs2,230, HDFC Bank jumped 5.93% at Rs1,023, Maruti Udyog added 4.95% at Rs831, ONGC gained 4.87% at Rs852, SBI advanced 4.72% at Rs1,029 and L&T was up 4.72% at Rs1,572. Hero Honda, Reliance Communications, Tata Motors and Satyam Computers gained 3-4% each. However, Grasim shed 1.18% at Rs2,081.

Cement stocks slipped from the day's high after the finance minister asked cement manufacturers to come up with proposals to moderate cement prices. Gujarat Ambuja gained 1.36% at Rs108. ACC at Rs753 and India Cements at Rs166 closed with marginal gains.

Capital goods stocks notched up significant gains during the day. Areva surged 8.32% at Rs1,121, Siemens added 4.82% at Rs1,104, Greaves Cotton rose 4.01% at Rs337, Gammon India jumped 4% at Rs299, Jyoti Structures advanced 3.96% at Rs177, Thermax gained 3.90% at Rs374, Crompton Greaves was up 2.94% at Rs190 and Triveni Engineering gained 2.64% at Rs49.

Over 49.93 lakh Idea Cellular shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Welspun Gujarat (34.48 lakh shares), Reliance Petro (29.66 lakh shares), Gujarat Ambuja Cement (28.27 lakh shares) and ITC (27.98 lakh shares).

Value-wise SBI registered a turnover of Rs111 crore on the BSE followed by Reliance Communications (Rs109 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs99 crore), BHEL (Rs65 crore) and Century Textiles (Rs53 crore).