Sensex ends buoyant

It seems that the bulls are back in action. The Sensex traded firm above the 13000 mark for the entire trading session on the back of strong US and Asian markets, creating the perfect platform for buying in the domestic market. Unshaken by the slowdown in foreign institutional investor inflows, the Sensex resumed 49 points higher at 12905 and advanced further on substantial buying support. Buying in heavyweight, metal, banking, capital goods and fast moving consumer goods stocks propelled the index to an intra-day high of 13194 in the afternoon. The Sensex wrapped up the session with gains of 322 points at 13178, while the Nifty closed with gains of 91 points at 3843.

The market breadth was extremely positive. Of the 2,584 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,891 stocks advanced, 630 stocks declined and 63 stocks ended unchanged. All the sectoral indices notched up significant gains. The BSE Metal Index was the biggest gainer and soared 3.55% followed by the BSE Bankex (up 3.38%), the BSE FMCG Index (up 3.25%), the BSE CG Index (up 3.04%), the BSE CD Index (up 2.74%), the BSE Teck Index (up 2.49%) and the BSE IT Index (up 2.41%).

Bajaj Auto was the lone loser in the Sensex basket. Tata Steel led the upsurge and surged 6.04% at Rs493. Among the other major gainers ITC soared 4.90% at Rs155, Maruti Udyog gained 4.57% at Rs790, Reliance Communications advanced 4.57% at Rs416, SBI vaulted 4.30% at Rs989, Grasim jumped 3.88% at Rs2,195, L&T added 3.21% at Rs1,597 and HDFC Bank rose 3.04% at Rs972. Hindalco, BHEL, ONGC, ACC, Infosys, Tata Motors, Gujarat Ambuja, Reliance Energy, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Industries, TCS and Wipro gained 1-2% each.

Metal stocks were in the limelight and rallied sharply. Shree Precoated soared 5% at Rs284, SAIL jumped 3.14% at Rs118, Hindustan Zinc added 3.05% at Rs668 and Hindalco gained 2.84% at Rs135.

Over 2.54 crore IFCI shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Visu International (43.63 lakh shares), Reliance Natural Resources (41.51 lakh shares), IndiaBulls Real Estate (36.36 lakh shares) and Reliance Petroleum (34.04 lakh shares).

Tata Steel was the most actively traded counter on the BSE and registered a turnover of Rs133 crore followed by Mindtree (Rs99 crore), IndiaBulls Real Estate (Rs99 crore), IFCI (Rs92 crore) and India Bulls Financial Services (Rs91 crore).