Sensex hits another high as metals shine

The benchmark share index Sensex rose to its eighth record high for this month as metal stocks registered heavy gains. The market opened 125 points above its previous close and zoomed to touch the early high of 15305. The Sensex remained steady on the back of firm metal and capital goods stocks. Strong support also came from Tata Motors, Reliance Industries and few cement stocks. The metal stocks were in the limelight on the reports that ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steel company, is signing Nippon Steel Corp for a global strategic alliance and Rio Tinto Group agreeing to buy Alcan for $38.1 billion. The Wholesale Price Index rose to 4.27% for the week ended June 20, higher than previous week's increase of 4.13%, but the same had a little or no impact on the market sentiment. The Sensex touched the lifetime high of 15331 by the afternoon. After exhibiting some range-bound moves the Sensex finally closed the session at 15273, up 181 points. The broad based Nifty also hit the record high of 4514 in the afternoon and the index ended the session by adding 58 points at 4504.

Surprisingly the breadth of the market was negative. Of the 2,735 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,534 stocks declined, 1,148 stocks advanced and 53 stocks ended unchanged. Among the sectoral indices, the BSE Metal index flared up by 4.58% followed by the BSE Oil & Gas index (up 1.79%), the BSE PSU index (up 1.49%) and the BSE Auto index (up 1.04%). However, the BSE Realty index, the BSE HC index and the BSE CD index ended in the negative territory.

Except a few most of the index stocks ended at higher levels. Hindalco was the day's star performer and shot up by 5.99% at Rs174. Among the other major gainers Tata Motors surged 3.75% at Rs767, Tata Steel vaulted by 3.35% at Rs695, Reliance Industries spurted 2.89% at Rs1,769, Satyam Computers jumped by 2.82% at Rs493, M&M scaled up by 2.72% at Rs825, BHEL advanced by 2.58% at Rs1,684, HDFC Bank added 2.48% at Rs1,231 and ACC rose 2.18% at Rs1,096. Among the laggards TCS slumped by 2.10% at Rs1,137, Dr Reddy's Lab dropped 2.03% at Rs668, HLL slipped 1.51% at Rs203, Ranbaxy shed 1.48% at Rs353 and Reliance Communication fell by 1.21% at Rs555.

Metal stocks were in limelight today. SAIL vaulted by 10.49% at Rs160, Hindustan Zinc soared 7.99% at Rs798, Sesa Goa zoomed 6.12% at Rs1,909, Shree Precoated advanced 6.02% at Rs407, Hindalco shot up by 5.99% at Rs174 and JSW Steel added 5.17% at Rs723.

Over 1.07 crore Silverline Technologies shares changed hands on the BSE followed by Reliance Natural Resources (97.56 lakh shares), IFCI (92.95 lakh shares), SAIL (64.22 lakh shares) and G V Films (57.61 lakh shares).

Value-wise GMR Infrastructure registered a turnover of Rs396 crore on the BSE followed by India Infoline (Rs186 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs175 crore), Infosys (Rs169 crore) and DLF (Rs152 crore).