Sensex 15K just 120 points away...

After opening with a positive gap of 62 points at 14,868, the Sensex rallied to a new, all-time intra-day high of 14,907. Profit-taking at higher levels saw the index pare gains and slip to a low of 14,791 - down 116 points from the day's high.

The index, thereafter, rebounded into positive zone and displayed range-bound movement for the major part of the session. Aggressive buying in cement stocks, coupled with smart gains in select heavyweights, saw the index rally towards the closing bell. The index finally finished with a gain of 74 points at 14,880.

The Nifty rallied to a fresh high of 4386 in opening trades. However, unlike the Sensex, the index, after slipping into negative zone, exhibited range-bound movement with a negative bias for most of the day. The index eventually ended the day on a flat note at 4359 - up two points.

The breadth was negative on the BSE - out of 2,676 stocks traded, 1,434 declined, 1,190 advanced and 52 were unchanged today.

MOVERS & SHAKERS

ACC zoomed 9% to Rs 1,023. Ambuja Cements surged 4.5% to Rs 130, and Grasim added over 1% to Rs 2,739.

Tata Steel soared 2.6% to Rs 616. Cipla, Hindustan Unilever, NTPC and ICICI Bank rallied over 2% each to Rs 218, Rs 199, Rs 155 and Rs 985, respectively.

Tata Motors and Larsen & Toubro gained 1.5% each at Rs 698 and Rs 2,291, respectively.

ITC, Reliance Communications and Maruti were up around 1% each at Rs 158, Rs 542 and Rs 791, respectively.

ONGC shed 1.6% to Rs 874. Wipro and SBI slipped over 1% each to Rs 509 and Rs 1,563, respectively.

DAZZLING DEBUT

Vishal Retail made a big-bang debut on the bourses today. The stock listed at a 75% premium at Rs 472 on the BSE as against the issue price of Rs 270. The stock touched a low of Rs 423, and then zoomed to a high of Rs 809 before settling at Rs 752 (a premium of 178%).

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Debutant Vishal Retail topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 854 crore followed by ACC (Rs 145 crore), Indiabulls Real Estate (Rs 135.70 crore), Reliance (Rs 106.70 crore) and SBI (Rs 103.70 crore).

IFCI led the volume chart with trades of around 1.22 crore shares followed by Vishal Retail (1.14 crore), Reliance Natural Resources (71 lakh), Silverline (63.65 lakh) and Bellary Steel (51 lakh).