Sensex ends up 197pts, Reliance gains 3%

After opening marginally (nine points) higher at 15,131, the Sensex zoomed to a high of 15,351 on the back of aggressive buying in NTPC, Tata Steel, Reliance and auto stocks.

The Sensex finally ended with a gain of 197 points at 15,319. The index thus gained over 6% (894 points) during the week.

The Auto, Healthcare and Metal indices rallied over 2% each to 4878, 3573 and 11,566, respectively.

The market breadth was fairly positive - out of 2,773 stocks traded, 1,640 advanced, 1,060 declined and 73 were unchanged.

INDEX GAINERS

Mahindra & Mahindra zoomed 5% to Rs 709. Maruti soared over 4% to Rs 868, and Tata Motors rallied 3% to Rs 702.

Tata Steel surged 5% to Rs 690. NTPC gained 4.3% at Rs 173.

Ranbaxy moved up 3.5% to Rs 391. Hindustan Unilever added 3% to Rs 209.

Reliance advanced 2.7% to Rs 1,960. ONGC and TCS were up over 2% each at Rs 858 and Rs 1,065, respectively.

SBI, Reliance Energy, BHEL and Reliance Communications gained around 1.7% each at Rs 1,600, Rs 780, Rs 1,889 and Rs 543, respectively.

ICICI Bank moved up 1.5% to Rs 885. Cipla and Wipro were up 1.3% each at Rs 167 and Rs 482, respectively.

VALUE & VOLUME TOPPERS

Reliance topped the value chart with a turnover of Rs 232.40 crore followed by Tata Steel (Rs 129 crore), Nagarjuna Fertilisers (Rs 117.60 crore), SBI (Rs 112 crore) and Puravankara (Rs 111.60 crore).

Nagarjuna Fertilisers led the volume chart with trades of around 3.04 crore shares followed by IKF Technologies (2.27 crore), Ispat Industries (1.66 crore), IFCI (1.52 crore) and Tata Teleservices (1.32 crore).